FBI seeks ‘peaceful’ end to armed standoff at OR federal building

The pair said they lit the fires in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires. “And that for them, this is a civil peaceful protest”.

Tensions are high and there is no sign a militia group is leaving, two days after the men occupied a federal wildlife refuge building in Oregon.

Cliven Bundy says he spoke with Dwight Hammond last month and remembers speaking to a man afraid of the government.

Harney County Sheriff David Ward accuses the armed men of having larger goals.

It’s hard to say how this is going to end. While ranchers and others complain of onerous federal rules, critics of the push for more local control have said the federal government should administer the public lands for the widest possible uses, including environmental and recreation.

Ammon Bundy – one of the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights – told reporters on Monday that two local ranchers who face long prison sentences for setting fire to land have been treated unfairly.

Federal authorities have so far not moved to take back Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. He said the group calls itself Citizens for constitutional Freedom and has sent a “demand for redress” to local, state and federal officials.

Mr Bundy says, this time, they are protesting against the imminent imprisonment of the father and son ranchers.

Reporters have seen roughly 20 people at the remote national facility.

The county sheriff says the Hammonds have turned themselves in to serve the extended sentences.

“Many people here relate to the concerns that Ammon Bundy has raised about things like federal overreach or the inability of ranchers or loggers to access federal lands in the way they did in the ’70s and ’80s”, she explained.

Sources tell KOIN 6 News federal officials are working with local deputies to try to bring a “peaceful resolution” to the situation.

“We do understand their reasons for occupying the building, but we don’t support their course of action”, he said, adding that 3% of Idaho strives to remain in good standing with law enforcement officers and uses rallies, social media and the legal system to enact change.

There’s Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum, militia organizer Blaine Cooper, retired Marine Jon Ritzheimer and self-proclaimed leader of the group, Ammon Bundy, who is well-known around Phoenix.

Bundy and his son have called on militia members from across the nation to join their occupation.

“We ask that people stay away from the refuge for their safety”, Ward said.

“Go home, be with your own families and end this peacefully”, he said, denouncing the fact that “a peaceful protest” had become “armed and unlawful”.

“I also think that the sheriff and the county and the city are all doing all that they can to manage the Bundy’s self-serving attention grabbing efforts in a way that prevents Harney County from becoming a rallying cry for every anti-government person in America”.

The occupation came after an estimated 300 marchers – militia and local citizens – paraded through Burns, Ore., on Saturday to protest the prosecution of the Hammonds.

The Hammonds were convicted after starting what they said was a controlled fire on their ranch in Harney County.

But in October, a federal judge ruled their terms too short and ordered them both back to prison.