In new news, retired Graham County, Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack (here and here) is heading to Burns, Oregon on 12 February. Mack is the founder of the very right wing Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) (I will not link) which holds the nutty view that Sheriffs are the highest law enforcement in the land. He is also a member of Oafsheepers (will not link) and was at the Bundy standoff in 2014.
Sheriff Graham in Grant County, Oregon, where the BundyBunch were headed for a meeting when captured, is a member of CSPOA and a “constitutional sheriff”. Of course, in reality, there is no such thing as a constitutional sheriff anymore than the constitution prohibits the government owning land for the people across the nation. The constitutional sheriff idea arose from the 1960’s Posse Comitatus movement which gained strength through the 1970s and 1980s.
“Ever since the notion of the supremacy of the county sheriff became popularized, it has continued to remain attractive — though when people hear it, they don’t understand that what is behind it is violent lawlessness and vigilantism,” said Daniel Levitas, author of The Terrorist Next Door, a book that chronicles the racist underpinnings of the militia movement of the 1990s. “That’s what Richard Mack stands for when you strip all the window dressing away: lawlessness and vigilantism.” source
Oafsheepers have surmised that had the BundyBunch moved to a lateral location where there was a sympathetic Constitutional Sheriff (a suggestion they have indicated that they did, indeed, make to Ammon Bundy but one he rejected), things might have gone a bit differently for the BundyBunch, and that may be true. However, the feds have the right to defend federal lands sympathetic Sheriff or not. It would just require doing things a bit differently.
At any rate, the purpose of Mack going to Burns should be clear; outsiders and the absolutely nutty Harney County Committee of Safety want to sow more division. And don’t let that Committee of Safety name fool you. They are just another Sovereign Citizen group with militia leanings.
Just a nice little neighborly group.
Mack also announced (prior to his wife becoming ill and him having a heart attack) that he would be running for Sheriff of Navajo County, Arizona. You can read more about that in a few pieces here on DK including here. The county’s government election portal, however, does not show him as a candidate, so perhaps he has reconsidered. As DK writer Meteor Blades points out in a comment in the linked piece, Navajo County is:
44% Indian population (Navajo, Apache, Hopi).
Mack currently teaches history (!) at charter school, Heritage Academy, begun in 1995, at their Laveen Campus in Laveen Village, Arizona southwest of Phoenix.
So, watch out, Burns. Incoming.
And PS Burns: We’re all really sorry all of this is happening to you. We make fun, but truly, we are sorry. We’re also all hella glad it isn’t happening to us.
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This tweet really has nothing to do with Burns. Or maybe it does. Either way, I like it.
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This has been worrying many of us since the beginning:
“We’re concerned about the way artifacts have been stored here … and so we’re reaching out to the Paiute Tribe to say we need to open up some communication,” Finicum said. “We’re looking for a liaison because we want to make sure that these things are returned to the rightful owners.”
Tribal Chairperson Charlotte Rodrique had flatly rejected the group’s overtures, telling the Prospect that she had received racist emails from the group’s members. Rodrique, the leader of Harney County’s only federally recognized American Indian tribe, has insisted that federal officials start to account for the thousands of Paiute artifacts stored at the refuge as soon as the standoff ends. source
In the article (see source, above) the tribe expresses justified concern about where the tribal artifacts are now. This is really horrible sad. The entirety is well worth reading.
The terrorists have not only graded roads, but searched through important federal documents and artifacts. After most fled the refuge, a backhoe was seen on PopTart’s live video digging huge protective trenches for protection. But the tribe’s greatest fear is the theft of the artifacts.
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Well this fellow seems, um, chapped; dissent in the ranks. Note that Brandon Curtiss has been in the news a lot lately. He is the president of Idaho IIIpers (won’t link). and founder of the Pacific Patriots Network (won’t link), the group that called for the recent protest in Burns, Oregon.
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Finally, the memorial cross at Finicums death site has been torn down. Nobody’s admitting anything.
The destruction of the memorial seemed to carry a particular sting for BJ Soper, one of the leaders of the Pacific Patriots Network, a coalition of groups who protest perceived government overreach.
Soper was planning to conduct a memorial with other coalition members by Finicum's cross at 1 p.m. Saturday, but those plans changed after he saw what happened.
"We're going to go buy every damn flag in this town and hang [the cross] back up," he said. source
Don’t forget the tarp, guy.