Armed group occupying OR wildlife refuge rejects sheriff’s offer to leave

The leader of the group – Ammon Bundy – has repeatedly rejected calls to leave buildings at the refuge despite pleas from the county sheriff, from many local residents, and from Oregon’s governor, among others.

Ammon Bundy told reporters he was frustrated that the sheriff had not looked at his group’s list of grievances.

Powers said Ward searched the meeting to work out a serene determination to the takeover, not to make any captures.

The group of anti-government protesters – which is calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom – believes the Hammonds have been treated unfairly and exposed to double jeopardy for having to serve multiple sentences. Authorities had not yet moved to remove the group of roughly 20 people.

On Wednesday night, residents attended a community meeting to air their views about the two dozen or so armed men hold up at the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge south of Burns. He is also the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who led an armed standoff with the federal government back in 2014 and notoriously suggested that African-Americans were better off as slaves.

During the meeting on the road, the sheriff did not say if he would file any criminal charges against members of the group and didn’t predict what federal authorities might do. Harney County Sheriff David Ward met Thursday with Bundy.

“I’m here today to ask those folks to go home and let us get back to our lives”, Harney County Sheriff David Ward said Wednesday evening.

Ammon Bundy offered few specifics about the group’s plan to get the land turned over to local control, but Finicum said they would examine the underlying land ownership transactions to begin to “unwind it”.

The crowd cheered the most for those who vented about how the federal government manages grazing lands, backed a pair of Harney County ranchers now in federal prison or ended their comments with, “God bless America”. It owns 85 percent of Nevada, 66 percent of Utah, 62 percent of both Idaho and Alaska, and 53 percent of Oregon.

“Armed protesters don’t belong here”, she said. Both Dwight and Steven Hammond are now serving five-year-sentences for arson on federal lands. A judge ruled in October that their prior terms for the arson – three months for the father and one year for the son – were too short under federal law. They are endangering our children, and the safety of our community, and they need to leave.

“They are waking people up”, said 80-year-old Merlin Rupp, a long-time local resident. With the Hammonds voluntarily going to prison, Bundy’s end-game is not clear.

In any case, Bundy declined, saying he and his countrymen were “being overlooked once more”.

The reservation is not far from the wildlife reserve and the tribe has been living off the arid western OR mountains since long before Europeans arrived in North America.