The feds are allowing a leftist group to occupy the same Oregon preserve that constitutionalist cowboys were evicted from and arrested for taking over. One constitutionalist, a hard working cowboy and landowner, lost his life. All of the occupiers were overcharged by the prosecutor and seven were fully exonerated.
The Feds have picked sides.
The hippie “Rainbow Family” is illegally occupying Oregon’s Malheur National Forest
The Associated Press reports that 600 members of the Rainbow group are currently camped near Flagtail Meadow in the park with between 10,000 and 30,000 expected to arrive by July 4th.
“The group refused to sign a special use permit, required for groups of more than 75. The group has noted that it claims no leader, and consequently there is no one to sign such permits. The Malhuer Forest Service said it will require operating conditions that users must abide by,” according to the AP. The official gathering will last from July 1-7.
Ryan Nehl, the deputy Forest Service supervisor, will not stop the gathering to avoid presenting a danger to employees and the public.
Different rules for right and left
How differently they treated the constitutionalists in January 2016 when the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom camped out in the headquarters of the refuge to protest the feds taking over lands that belong to the states or the people.
The government has been gradually making it harder and more expensive for ranchers to graze their cattle on federally-controlled lands.
The Bundys led the protest and were fighting of their rights against an imminent threat as they saw it. They clearly stated they would not use intimidation or force. They were armed as is allowed by law in Oregon.
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Lavoy Finicum, 54, was one of the protesters who died after being shot multiple times. The Feds were shooting at him before he even left his van. His family is suing the Feds for using excessive force and improper police procedures.
The feds leveled very serious charges against the cowboy occupiers and seven were found innocent.
Don’t challenge the Feds, the Deep State or they’ll destroy you
KrisAnne Hall, a constitutional lawyer, issued a statement pointing to the glaring difference in treatment by the feds of one group over the other.
In part she said, “The federal government’s choice to continually placate some groups compared to the violent and punishing reaction that ensues in regard to anyone who challenges them, should make it clear to the American people that the federal government is sending a message; do not challenge us, do not question us, and if you do we will destroy you.”
The Rainbow coalition will harm the environment but they aren’t challenging the Feds, and therein lies the difference, KrisAnne believes.
The First Amendment should protect people from the Feds punishing protests. That isn’t what is happening.
Joe Miller, executive director of the U.S. Justice Foundation and publisher of Restoring Liberty, agreed that there is a double standard.
“I’m not surprised,” Miller said. “If you’re a committed activist for imposing constitutional restraints on D.C., we’ve entered an era where you can count on losing your property, freedom, and maybe even your life. But if you’re a committed activist for unrestrained personal license, this is your era where you can count on being rewarded infproportion to the insanity of your actions.”
Meanwhile, Malheur will soon be a dump
The U.S. Forest Service said that as of Tuesday, it had made two arrests, and handed out 31 warnings and three violation notices.
Rancher Loren Stout, who has a federal grazing permit on land adjacent to the event site, was upset, saying the Forest Service would punish ranchers if they ignored permit requirements and tapped a spring for drinking water like the Rainbow Family has done.
“People are furious over this,” Stout told the Blue Mountain Eagle, a weekly newspaper in John Day. “Not because it’s a friggin’ bunch of hippies. It’s the different standards.”
Last year, the same hippies were in Green Mountain National Forest and the U.S. taxpayer was on the hook for $500,000 in damages. There was a lot of damage alongside the roads where people parked. Some stayed behind to clean up but it was hardly enough.
The ACLU was there to make sure no one bothered the hippies camped out illegally.
When 200 citations were handed out, the government bragged that it was only 2% of the attendees who received them.
The leftists’ message is “light and love” but they’re an inexcusable drain on the federal taxpayer. If they were constitutionalists, they might be risking their very lives.
Organizers of the occupation were NOT found Innocent….they were acquitted of the charges that they were facing….being acquitted does not mean they were innocent what so ever, it means that there was some doubt of fully being guilty of the charges brought against the bundy bunch. Even Juror #4 said just that same thing after the verdict of the acquittal.
Yea because camping in the forest is the same as an armed occupation of federal buildings on a national wildlife refuge, using government heavy equipment to dig up artifacts on federal property, threatening law enforcement with armed resistance, stealing a government vehicle to go on a beer run to town, threatening and intimidating the families of government employees in the town of Burns and attempting to establish your own government to prosecute duly elected local officials, yea totally the same. I don’t care for the rainbows but the comparison to the militia takeover of Burns and the refuge is ignorant and uninformed and anyone promoting such a ludicrous comparison should be called out for it.
Why doesn’t the Feds make those people pay the bill for the clean up and restoring the property to to it’s original condition.
The government doesn’t care about a bunch of dirty hippies because they’re not a physical threat, but they are afraid of intelligent and organized people like the Bundy’s and their supporters, hence the extreme persecution and beatdown.
To completely different areas.
wow guys this is so far from being in the same ball park. the two areas are not even in the same counties, one was a government compound the other out in a forest. La Voy was shot getting out of his truck not a Van. the Forest Service took the rainbows to court last time they were here and lost. people come from all corners of the nation for the rainbow gathering. these include professors, lawyers, students, and yes 60s throwback hippies. Bundys event was a peaceful protest against the government, the rainbows is a celebration of life. that being said I dislike the rainbows because they are smarter than the feds and refuse to except their rules and like the Bundy group use the constitution as their defense. there will be damage to the area they are in but the way they get away with this is they have no known leader to hold them accountable. therefore they overwhelm small town because short of putting them in the small town jails that have maybe 20 beds there is nothing else except giving them a ticket which they wont pay. this is a apple to tomato comparison. it is wrong to compare government over reach to a party proving government inabilities.