Protests hit FBI, Oregon cops ambush of Finicum

Militant/Louise Goodman

Protests took place in more than 30 cities and towns in the West and across the country March 5, including 70 people in Bend, Oregon, right, demanding an independent investigation into the killing of Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum by Oregon State Police and the FBI. Finicum, along with other participants in the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside Burns, Oregon, were on their way to a community meeting off the refuge Jan. 26 when they were ambushed by cops.

Finicum, Ammon Bundy and others organized the occupation to draw attention to the frame-up of father and son Oregon ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond, as well as to federal policies that are driving ranchers and farmers off the land. For decades federal authorities pressed the Hammonds to sell them their land and harassed them when they refused. They used the Bill Clinton-era Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act to push up their sentences and imprisoned them twice for the same small fires. Ranchers throughout the West have protested against the frame-up of the Hammonds.

“There’s a lot of rights being taken away from us,” Keith Hart told KTVZ News, “and LaVoy getting killed — that was a complete murder.”

A handful of environmentalists held a counterprotest in Bend hailing the police action.

— SETH GALINSKY