Occupation of remote wildlife refuge continues

But if the local community says it does not want them there, Bundy said he’d leave. “It is not the kind of thing that should be happening in Harney County”. Records show that in 2010 he borrowed $530,000 through the Small Business Administration for his company, Valet Fleet Service LLC.

The remote high desert of eastern OR became the latest flashpoint for anti-government sentiment as armed protesters occupied a national wildlife refuge to object to a prison sentence for local ranchers for… So there’s a role, but all government’s role is to serve the people.

They say if something similar were to ever happen at the Dayton federal building multiple federal and local agencies would be on tap to assist in keeping the public safe.

Those concerns were shared by John O’Keeffe, president of the Oregon Cattleman’s Association, who said Monday that his group “does not support illegal activity taken against the government”.

Finicum said the power was still on at buildings at the refuge.

Local authorities have not yet attempted to reclaim the refuge.

The militiamen told OregonLive there were about 150 of them, but a couple who delivered food to the refuge headquarters estimated that there were just 15.

But she says her views have evolved as she has learned more. Take, for example, the deadly confrontation at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993. And that was caught on a YouTube video that went viral in the militia movement and was responsible, as much as anything, for drawing hundreds of people to the Bundy cause.

So how long should authorities wait, and what would force that tactic to change?

“I think if one person gives them a Snickers bar, they’re going on national media and claiming that the community supports them”, he said.

The FBI, which is leading the investigation, hasn’t specified what it will do.

So far, law enforcement has not taken action against the group of about two dozen activists opposing the imprisonment of father-and-son ranchers who set fire to federal land.

For two days, the group made only vague statements about what would make the protesters leave. The group, which included a couple of women and some boys and girls Monday, did not release a copy of its demands. But Bundy and his brother Ryan are also urging the federal government to relinquish control of the Malheur reserve.

The tweet was later deleted.

The group calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom said it wants an inquiry into whether the government is forcing ranchers off their land.

The man, who spoke with The Oregonian/OregonLive but asked not to be named for fear of repercussions, said he planned to visit the refuge Tuesday in hopes of getting some face time with the militants’ leaders, specifically Ammon Bundy.

“I consider it ill-timed and ill-advised”, Harvey said. “I’m not here to die”.

Speaking through their attorney, Dwight Hammond Jr. and son Steven said they preferred to turn themselves in and serve out their sentence. The Hammonds were convicted three years ago of setting fires in 2001 and 2006 on lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. They’re demanding that federal lands be turned over to local authorities and the Hammonds be freed. “What the Hammonds want and what the community wants is immaterial”, said Mike Vanderboegh, a founder of the III Percent Movement, which draws its name from the notion that only 3 percent of Americans actively participated in the Revolutionary War.

“We can enforce the Constitution in Harney County and that’s what we intend to do”, Ammon Bundy told reporters. This armed occupation can in no way be justified on a scriptural basis.

“The Hammonds have turned themselves in”. “Go home, be with your own families and end this peacefully”.