Vol. 80/No. 7 February 22, 2016
‘The truth will come out: Finicum was flat murdered’
“The truth will come out. LaVoy was just flat murdered,” Tad Houpt, the owner of a small logging company, said by phone Feb. 7. Finicum and Bundy were traveling to a Jan. 26 community meeting that Houpt helped organize in John Day, Oregon, when they were intercepted by the cops.
Bundy initiated the refuge occupation Jan. 2 to draw attention both to the frame-up of the Hammonds and to U.S. government land policies that have been undermining the livelihood of ranchers and farmers.
The persecution of the Hammonds outraged small ranchers and farmers throughout the West — controlled burns are common to control invasive plants and to prevent the spread of wildfires.
Despite serving the sentence imposed by the trial judge, the Hammonds went back to jail Jan. 4, because of a U.S. Appeals Court ruling that their sentences didn’t meet federal minimum rules.
After the trial the U.S. Bureau of Land Management vindictively revoked the Hammonds’ grazing permits, threatening the survival of their ranch.
Meanwhile, the Oregonian reported Feb. 6 that the scanty official information and one grainy video released on the killing confirm many aspects of the accounts by Shawna Cox and Victoria Sharp — who were in the pickup truck driven by Finicum.
According to both of them, the cops first fired one shot at the vehicle they were in after Finicum initially pulled over. Finicum then shouted out to the cops, “I’m going to see the sheriff,” a reference to Sheriff Glenn Palmer of Grant County, who was also scheduled to be at the John Day meeting and has been quoted in the press as saying the Hammonds should be freed.
Finicum tried to drive away, but was soon forced off the road again. The Oregonian reports that the FBI admits lethal force was used when the truck “approached the checkpoint,” that is, even before the vehicle crashed into the snow bank and Finicum gets out with his hands up.
Much of the capitalist press justifies the killing and prosecutions by labeling Finicum and Bundy as extremists and outside agitators.
“To his detractors,” the New York Times said, “he was a doctrinaire leader of an illegal protest that is deeply opposed by many who live near the refuge.” The paper conveniently leaves out that most people in the area support the demand to free the Hammonds and are sympathetic to their opposition to the government land policies. Many local residents visited the refuge, met Finicum and Bundy or donated food and supplies to the occupiers.
Some 1,000 people attended Finicum’s funeral in Kanab, Utah, Feb . 5. While pretending to be objective, the Times’ description of the scene plays on many of its readers’ prejudices. After the service there were “cowboys on horseback and members of so-called patriot groups wearing camouflage and carrying small weapons,” it reports.
The Times did quote one rancher from Nevada, Diana Clark, at the funeral. “All of us ranchers feel like we’re backed into a corner,” she said. “And it’s hard to get anyone to acknowledge our needs, and so they gave us a platform.”
At least 22 smaller protests against the killing of Finicum took place Feb. 6, from Florida to Washington. One common placard was “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” a slogan first popularized by protesters against police brutality after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. At events in John Day and Prineville, Oregon, dozens of local ranchers participated.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors have now indicted 16 supporters of the occupation with conspiracy to “prevent by force, intimidation and threats, officers and employees of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service … from discharging the duties of their office” at the wildlife refuge.
The list of what the indictment calls “overt acts” to further the conspiracy is proof itself that the prosecution is a frame-up.
The first “act” it lists is an Oct. 5 meeting where Ammon Bundy warned Harney County Sheriff David Ward that if the Hammonds went to jail there could be “extreme civil unrest.”
Although the occupiers are not accused of pointing their weapons at anyone, the indictment claims that they “brandished and carried firearms.” Oregon law allows the open carrying of firearms.
Bundy released a statement from prison Feb. 6, noting that the occupation was civil disobedience. He encouraged those “who disagree with my speech” or dislike his ideas to engage in civil discussion. “If you do not advocate for government to tolerate ideas that it hates, then the First Amendment and free speech mean nothing,” he said. “Arm yourself with ideas. … Argue and disagree. Be free.”
Supporters of the Hammonds continue to organize. A new online petition calling on President Barack Obama to free the Hammonds had 3,341 signatures as of Feb. 9. The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association is asking that donations be sent to: The Hammond Family, c/o Sandra Carlon at US Bank, 493 N. Broadway, Burns, Oregon 97720.
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