Militia Members Occupy National Parks Building As Protest

ammon-bundy

Militia members recently occupied a national wildlife headquarters in Oregon as part of an ongoing protest to support two men charged with arson and are scheduled to return to prison. The wildlife refuge had been close during the weekend, but has suddenly become the home to as many as 150 supporters, according to reports. Ammon Bundy, a militiaman, stated that he was willing to stay in the federal property for years if necessary. Ryan Bundy, his brother, is among the people squatting in the building. The brothers said that though these were not looking for any trouble or violence, they would not hold back if the police evicted or tried to evict them.

The sudden inhabitation came just after a couple of hundred marchers stormed through Burns in Oregon, around 80 km (50 miles) away from the wildlife refuge, in protestation of the prosecution of Steven Hammond and Dwight Hammond Jr , a son and father rancher duo situated in Harney County. The pair had previously served time in 2012 after setting public land on fire to protect their own property. Now, they have been ordered to return to jail after a certain federal court ruled their original time served as too lenient and insufficient.

Ammon Bundy stated that the facility which the protesters had recently claimed had been the crux of all the problems and all the injustice that the Hammons have had to face. He went on to say that the decision was not something that was made at the spur of the moment. He also urged other militia people to take a stand against the tyranny of the state. Previously, the family ranch of the Bundy clan had been the location of another protest in 2014, this time the Bureau of Land Management. Nationwide attention was focused on the case when the agency tried to confiscate the Bundy’s cattle on grounds of a disagreement over grazing fees, though the federal agents finally did back down.