Armed Occupation Stimulates Economy in Oregon City

And law enforcement still isn’t saying what, if any, action it might be planning to take against the militants, reports Amanda Peacher of Oregon Public Broadcasting.

“He’s completely biased, he’s also threatened the Committee of Safety, he’s intimidated them, he’s tried to belittle them and really acting unusual”, Bundy said, with a copy of the U.S. Constitution conspicuously poking out of his shirt pocket.

“There should be a dialogue”, LaVoy Finicum, a rancher from Arizona, said Tuesday while announcing the meeting, The Oregonian reported.

County Judge Steve Grasty says he intends to bill Ammon Bundy for $60k to $75k in daily county costs due to occupation. They said it was part of the group’s bigger plan to return federal land to residents of Harney County.

Doucette said he will oversee a “grand jury” made up of 25 community members who will meet in secret, but he said the results of their extralegal proceedings will be publicly released.

Photos taken by OPB from inside the refuge showing the occupiers sitting at government computers with the lights and apparently the heat turned on (the occupiers aren’t wearing coats) have created a growing outcry from former federal land managers. “If they did, they, too, would work to bring this situation to a peaceful close”.

The Citizens for Constitutional Freedom group engaged in the standoff have renamed the federal center the Harney County Resource Center to draw attention to their desire to have public lands removed from federal control and be placed under localized supervision.

While the Federal Bureau of Investigation hasn’t appeared to have attempted any greater engagement than to tally a list of potential charges, Sheriff David Ward spoke against the group in a press conference yesterday, and went over the security measures put into place due to threats against him and other officials.

Leader Ammon Bundy told reporters that Harney County officials won’t let them use the fairgrounds, as they had hoped.

“I came here from New Mexico to speak on behalf of sportsmen, to speak on behalf of people that love land and wildlife, to come to tell these people to get the hell off of our land”, he said.

Grasty said that he is looking for ways to pursue civil lawsuit against the Bundys to force them to pay for the cost they were incurring.

VeneKlasen says the 17,000 members of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation are against the OR protest.

Rodrique said the armed occupiers are “desecrating one of our sacred sites” with their presence at refuge.