Posted on 01/27/2016 5:55:49 AM PST by xzins
Four days after taking the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, LaVoy Finicum, a 55-year-old Arizona rancher told NBC News that he'd rather die than spend his days in prison.
"There are things more important than your life and freedom is one of them," he said in early January as he sat huddled in a blue tarp outside of the wildlife refuge keeping watch with his gun in his lap. "I'm prepared to defend freedom."
Finicum told NBC that night that he was staying outside to ensure that the FBI could find him if they came to arrest him.
Finicum was shot and killed Tuesday night when law enforcement stopped two cars carrying standoff leaders on their way from the refuge to a meeting in Grant County. Ryan Bundy, another militiaman, was shot and transported to the hospital, but did not suffer any life-threatening injuries, according to The Oregonian.
Before Finicum's death was even confirmed, supporters rushed to portray him on social media as a martyr who, according to unverified accounts, had his hands up and was unarmed when he was shot. Law enforcement sources told CNN that Finicum and Ryan Bundy were the only two leaders who did not surrender during the confrontation.
Finicum had taken a strong interest in land disputes with the federal government after he stood at Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's side during his confrontation with the Bureau of Land Management in 2014. After returning home to Arizona, Finicum – a Mormon father with 11 children– made a decision. He was no longer going to write a check to the federal government for his grazing fees.
At the refuge, Finicum became a spokesman for the militiamen, fielding questions from press and helping plan events like one Saturday where ranchers were invited to come to the commandeered refuge to sign "declarations of emancipation" from the federal government, documents asserting they would no longer pay grazing fees. According to the Oregonian, Finicum had incurred about $12,000 in fees with the BLM.
In a video posting just hours before his death, Finicum described why the militiamen were still holding onto the refuge after more than three weeks and after local officials and community members had asked them to go. Finicum said that the occupation was intended to push back on the federal government's overreach.
"They do not want to let go of this," Finicum said. "They do not intend on loosing here and we do not intend on giving it back to them."
But Finicum's participation in the standoff had taken a toll. Back home in Arizona, child services had removed four foster children from his family's care, a move Finicum characterized as retribution. Oregon Public Broadcasting had reported that Finicum made most of his income from fostering.
Before Oregon, Finicum kept a website One Cowboy's Stand For Freedom where he documented his beliefs, his family and his ranch.
Finicum writes on the website that "he has drawn a line in the sand and that line is the Constitution in its original intent."
He also had written a cowboy thriller about the chaos of the American West after an electromagnetic pulse collapses the country's infrastructure called "Only By Blood and Suffering." The novel traced a family as each grown child navigated the new world and fights back against the overreach of the federal government.
It has been confirmed they were headed for a meeting in a town some distance from the refuge.
They were driving there.
With all respects for the dead, they were armed anarchists. They had made an armed takeover of property they did not own. It was getting crazier every day. They were convening a “citizen’s gradn jury” to put liens on private property of elected officials they did not like.
I’m not surprised it ended in gunfire. I’m not surprised the anarchists lost the gun fight. I’m not surprised that within moments of the shooting, some of their supporters were posting that the clunk had been on his hands and knees and executed with 3 shots to the head.
It’s like the BLM crowd still believing the “Hands Up - Don’t Shoot” BS.
Bottom line, agree with their cause or not, the anarchists came looking for a gun fight, and got one. No one cries at a gun fight.
Pretty sure most of the arable land was homesteaded long, long ago. There's a reason western states never took over big swaths of land - no one wanted it.
It appears the remaining members are preparing for a gun fight to the death. There is a live streaming video on You Tube.
That will be my question ... Will the oather's be keepers or breakers ... I sincerely hope for the former.
I think this guy had shown leadership.
Why did they go to his home and take his foster kids? Sounds like targeting him to me.
Why did they go after this convoy, when other members were still back at the fire shack? Was it because he was in the vehicle?
Why is he the only one shot?
Obama is way too silent
wow. if he was indeed politically murdered while resisting peacefully, all the involved perpetrator(s), whether fbi or leo, upto the president himself, need to be brought to justice. we can’t have leo killing or interfering with protesting American citizens for any cause other than to prevent immanent loss of innocent life or destruction of private property.
Well, I suppose montel should be giddy with this news. Disgusting.
They are not anarchists and don’t fit the description of anarchists.
They had guns, but guns are legal, and if you’re staying in an unused firefighter’s shack, then they’d be useful for shooting squirrels ‘n sich.
This newspaper article says there is a claim that the mans hands were up and he was saying don’t shoot.
No one here is making anything up.
Wonder if we'll ever see the autopsy report. Or will the feds cremate the body before turning it over to the family.
The article says his hands were in the air.
“Copulaters is good, and rabbit hunters is bad.”
Agreed.
There is a particular distinction I notice.
I believe OWS gets away with it because they act out in lib run territory. Even the Baltimore mayor was saying the gov needed to let them act out (by looting, etc.).
Unfortunately, the Oregon gov is quite the dike lib. As opposed to the Baltimore mayor who was willing to stand back, the governor couldn’t tolerate the thought of a few armed white boys on land that should be given to nature. She was haranguing the feds to intervene. (see articles in the Oregonian).
So I think the ranchers picked the wrong place to make their stand. Groups like OWS are actually run by commie-agenda types. They know where they can get away with stuff. Remember Pelosi’s “astroturf” line about the TEA Party, psychologists call that projection.
So when the feds decided to go out and make an arrest, this is what happened.
Now, was this a justified shooting like M Brown, or a murder, simply because the guy didn’t put his hands up when ordered to 3 times? I really don’t know.
Nice to hear from the law and order faction of FR, coming up with a bogus analogy to support the status quot of of a strong federal government. I’ve had more difficulties with the government than I’ve ever had from an anarchist.
The family should order immediately an independent autopsy.
That alone increases my respect for the man.
I am gonna try to track down this tome.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3387693/posts?page=1#1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3387861/posts?page=1#1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3389065/posts?page=6#6
“”the anarchists came looking for a gun fight, and got one””
Where do you find proof there WAS a gun fight? Wouldn’t that imply there were guns fired AT the FBI or whatever law enforcement agency stopped them on the highway?
“”I am gonna try to track down this tome.””
Let us know if you have any luck - appeals to me also...
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