The dispute over the Oregon ranch has long standing roots as many ranchers and other landowners have been doing battle with the federal government over rights to the land they legally owned. Some have lived on these lands for over 100 years as stated in an article by the FreedomFightersTimes.com.
The Harney Basin (were the Hammond ranch is established) was settled in the 1870’s. The valley was settled by multiple ranchers and was known to have run over 300,000 head of cattle. These ranchers developed a state of the art irrigated system to water the meadows, and it soon became a favorite stopping place for migrating birds on their annual trek north.
So we have a family that has worked these particular lands for well over 100 years and have maintained these lands through good times and bad. Over the years the federal government has used a variety of means to seize land from these landowners for a variety of reasons such as the supposed protection of endangered wildlife, the setting up of Indian reservations, and more ridiculous reasons such as the determination that grazing of cattle was detrimental to wildlife. The means at which the federal government would go to get these ranchers to leave their land and in effect surrender it to the federal government was utterly disgusting. They would even go as far as to reroute waterways to flood and ruin their property which would in turn bankrupt them as they didn’t have the means to recover from the flooding.
Nonetheless the Hammonds have managed to stick it out and still tend to a large portion of land in rural Oregon. Subsequent disputes took place with the Federal Bureau of Land Management as they attempted to get the Hammonds to leave their land.
The proverbial straw that has broken the camel’s back that has lead to standoff we are witnessing today in Oregon is explained by TheFreedomFighterTimes.com,
(j1) The next day federal agents went to the Harney County Sheriff’s office and filed a police report making accusation against Dwight and Steven Hammond for starting the backfire. A few days after the backfire a Range-Con from the Burns District BLM office asked Steven if he would meet him in town (Frenchglen) for coffee. Steven accepted. When leaving he was arrested by the Harney County Sheriff Dave Glerup and BLM Ranger Orr. Sheriff Glerup then ordered him to go to the ranch and bring back his father. Both Dwight and Steven were booked and on multiple Oregon State charges. The Harney County District Attorney reviewed the accusation, evidence and charges, and determined that the accusations against Dwight & Steven Hammond did not warrant prosecution and dropped all the charges.
(q) June 22, 2012, Dwight and Steven were found guilty of starting both the 2001 and the 2006 fires by the jury. However, the federal courts convicted them both as “Terrorist” under the 1996 Antiterrorism Act. Judge Hogan sentenced Dwight (Father) to 3 months in prison and Steven (son) to 12 months in federal prison. They were also stipulated to pay $400,000 to the BLM. Hogan overruling the minimum terrorist sentence, commenting that if the full five years were required it would be a violation of the 8th amendment (cruel and unusual punishment). The day of the sentencing Judge Hogan retired as a federal judge. In his honor the staff served chocolate cake in the courtroom.
(j) In 2006 a massive lightning storm started multiple fires that joined together inflaming the countryside. To prevent the fire from destroying their winter range and possibly their home, Steven Hammond (Son) started a backfire on their private property. The backfire was successful in putting out the lightning fires that had covered thousands of acres within a short period of time. The backfire saved much of the range and vegetation needed to feed the cattle through the winter. Steven’s mother, Susan Hammond said: “The backfire worked perfectly, it put out the fire, saved the range and possibly our home”.
(r) On January 4,, 2013, Dwight and Steven reported to prison. They fulfilled their sentences, (Dwight 3 months, Steven 12 months). Dwight was released in March 2013 and Steven, January 2014.
(s) Sometime in June 2014, Rhonda Karges, Field Manager for the BLM, and her husband Chad Karges, Refuge Manager for the Malheur Wildlife Refuge (which surrounds the Hammond ranch), along with attorney Frank Papagni exemplifying further vindictive behavior by filing an appeal with the 9th District Federal Court seeking Dwight’s and Steven’s return to federal prison for the entire 5 years.*
Hammond Family
(t) In October 2015, the 9th District Court “resentenced” Dwight and Steven, requiring them to return to prison for several more years. Steven (46) has a wife and 3 children. Dwight (74) will leave Susan (74) to be alone after 55 years of marriage. If he survives, he will be 79 when he is released.
(u) During the court preceding the Hammonds were forced to grant the BLM first right of refusal. If the Hammonds ever sold their ranch they would have to sell it to the BLM.
(v) Dwight and Steven are ordered to report to federal prison again on January 4th, 2016 to begin their resentencing. Both their wives will have to manage the ranch for several years without them. To date they have paid $200,000 to the BLM, and the remainder $200,000 must be paid before the end of this year (2015). If the Hammonds cannot pay the fines to the BLM, they will be forced to sell the ranch to the BLM or face further prosecution.
So here you have the! The real story behind what the media is reporting as the “attack on Oregon”. We have been inundated with nearly wall to wall news coverage from shows like Good Morning America to the local news reporting on how “local militia” stormed a government building, government compound, or whatever other rhetoric they can use to paint a picture of armed, fatigue clad, men physically taking over a building.
Leave it to news outlets like The Huffington Post to blast this incident and use it as political leverage to speak out against the Conservative movement.
This most recent incident is only the latest confrontation between the federal government and the militia movement, which gained popularity among conservative ideologues in the aftermath of the 1992 Ruby Ridge incident and the 1993 Waco siege, two of the most infamous and deadly standoffs involving federal agents in U.S. history. During the tense Ruby Ridge standoff in northern Idaho, three people died, including a deputy U.S. marshal, as authorities attempted to apprehend a white separatist for failing to appear in court for selling illegal sawed-off shotguns. In Waco, Texas, 76 people died during a 51-day siege after federal officials stormed a fortified religious compound led by David Koresh and his group of Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventists in an attempt to apprehend Koresh for stockpiling weapons. Both incidents prompted congressional inquiries into use of force by federal officials.
So we have the morons over at this pathetic so called news outlet comparing what is going on in Oregon to what took place in 1992 during the Ruby Ridge incident and in 1993 in Waco Texas. It’s these comparisons by the liberal, progressive media rags that lead the young people to look at situations like this as attacks on American cities by “right wing nut jobs” rather than looking at it as Americans standing for their Constitutional rights.
We then go on to hear about how these self proclaimed militia men are just a bunch of gun nuts. Little to the liberal, progressive millennial, morons realize that these are simply legal carry gun owners exercising their 2nd amendment right. In areas outside of the communist northeast or liberal left coast there exists a right to own and in many states carry that firearm with you nearly wherever you go. I know the liberals in the big cities are terrified of guns but these so called gun nuts are likely the most knowledgeable and respectful individuals when it comes to carrying and handling firearms.
Let’s go on to compare what is going on in Oregon to what we are dealing with when we see the black lives matter movement. The media portrayed the George Soros funded black lives matter movement as an uprising and shed a positive light on much of what they stood for. We saw individuals screaming burn this bitch down in Ferguson, and we had a mayor in Baltimore explaining that we must give the protestors “room to destroy”.
Let’s get this straight!! The #BaltimoreRiots were simply an “uprising” because the black community has been “held down” by the government… The same government that they voted into power to provide them with things like food stamps, welfare checks, and so on. They vote in the same big government, liberal progressives, and then burn their own damn cities down when the government backfires on them. Yet somehow we are told that they need their “space to destroy” like Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake so eloquently put it.
We then see the individuals in Oregon partake in a peaceful protest as they attempt to address government for redress of grievances. The grievance in this case being the attempt to throw in prison two individuals who already served time for their supposed crime. Agreed they don’t necessarily need to have firearms and what not, but it is our right to defend ourselves (especially in the municipality in which this is taking place) against a tyrannical government which is the gripe in Oregon.
While both instances may be legitimate grievances against government, it is absolutely pathetic the way the mainstream media is posing the situation in Oregon. Enough with the protected class bullshit as the thugs in Baltimore were given a get out of jail free card to destroy and American city while the peaceful protesters in Oregon are being labeled terrorists who are allegedly attacking an American City when in reality they are doing nothing more than occupying what amounts to a rest stop on the side of the road!
Young Conservative
Works Cited (as per FreedomFighterTimes.com)
Jason Wilson. “Oregon militia threatens showdown with US agents at wildlife refuge.”The Guardian. . (2016): . .
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