Oregon Militia Plans to Hold Meeting With Local Community, Discuss Exit Strategy

Harney County officials say they’ll hold a community meeting every Monday until the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge ends. The safety committee, which had previously asked the armed men to leave town, has now offered to take on the cause of the occupiers after they depart.

“We’re going to send Mr. Bundy the bill”, Judge Gratsy said at a meeting with local residents, the Guardian reported. “We invite all to attend”.

“I think there should be a dialogue”, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum said, relaying a message from the group’s leader, Ammon Bundy.

The occupation has cost the local government up to $75,000 a day and could climb to a total of $1 million if the ranchers do not leave, said Harney County Judge Steve Grasty.

“It probably won’t take too long”, said DeLemus, who is also a co-chair for United States presidential candidate Donald Trump’s veterans’ coalition in New Hampshire.

The group then took over buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and refused to leave despite appeals by Harney County Sheriff David Ward.

Bundy, son of controversial Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, and others started out protesting the sentencing of Dwight Hammond and his son Steven, two ranchers convicted of arson on federal lands in Oregon.

Our figures are a bit different, given the takeover began on January 2, the siege has now been 12 days, and that puts the estimate at over $1.6 million. He says he works with federal officials on land management and his employees have repaired the fence.

Shea said he was assured by both local and federal law enforcement that there is no plan to use violence against the armed occupiers. It looks like there are others out there that are just as demented as I am, but they actually followed through with their plans. “I shouldn’t have to be scared in my own hometown”, the young woman, holding back tears, bravely told local residents. They’re demanding that federal lands be turned over to local authorities and that the Hammonds be freed.

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