JUDGE WON'T ALLOW JURY TRIAL FOR MISDEMEANOR CHARGES IN OREGON STANDOFF

               Federal Judge Anna Brown has ruled she will hear evidence on misdemeanor charges and decide verdicts for seven people facing trial next month for the Oregon Standoff protest.

                  Brown's ruling yesterday (Friday January 27th) claimed "significant uncertainty in the law" prevented her from allowing a jury trial on the minor charges tacked onto the felony charges the seven defendants will face.

                   Defense lawyers were reported by "Oregon Live" as saying they want a federal magistrate to hear the misdemeanor charges because that's the standard procedure for such offenses.

                   The "Oregon Live" story published by reporter Maxine Bernstein went on to say:

                   "Defendants and their lawyers were dismayed by the ruling.

                    Andrew Kohlmetz, standby lawyer for defendant Jason Patrick said ' It's very important for Mr. Patrick to have a jury of his peers make those decisions.   He's frankly not happy.'

                    Matthew McHenry, who represents defendant Sean Anderson, argued in court papers that a jury verdict that 'reflects the judgement of the public and the defendants' peers' would provide a  'more satisfactory and acceptable resolution' to the defendants and the public.

                     He also argued that one jury trial would be more efficient and that prosecutors are trying to avoid a repeat of the across-the-board acquittals in the first trial.

                    'Finally, the defendants believe the government's strong desire for a bench trial stems in large part from the jury acquittals in the first trial.  The government should not be aided by this Court as it attempts to take this case out of the hands of a jury of the defendants peers,' McHenry wrote"

                   It looks like the judge is trying to help railroad the second group of Oregon Standoff defendants.

The "Oregon Live" story location is below:

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2017/01/misdemeanor_charges_against_se.html

                   (Since "Free Republic" has again suspended me from posting  repeating the allegation of 'sidebar violation' placing "Oregon Standoff" stories as "Front Page News" in their forum, this story is posted here)

                    

                  

                       LAVOY FINICUM REMEMBERED 

                 "I should have been a cowboy, I shoulda  have learned to rope and ride"-                                                       Toby Keith-Should've Been A Cowboy (1993)

                 " It's time we stop, hey what's that sound everybody look what's going down"                                                Buffalo Springfield-For What It's Worth (1966)

                                                  

It's been one year (January 26, 2016) since the FBI executed a 'felony traffic stop' against non violent protestors along Route 395 in Harney County, Oregon that led to the death of Robert "LaVoy" Finicum.

Finicum was a rancher, a cowboy, a defender of Constitutional rights and a believer in the Constitution of the United States.

He was a husband and father, including care for four foster children who were living at his ranch when the protest began,

LaVoy came to Oregon and was one of the leaders of the Oregon Standoff protest over the second time mandatory sentence jailing of Oregon ranchers Dwight and Stephen Hammond as 'terrorists'  for lighting a backfire to protect their property.

Early in the protest LaVoy encountered David Fry, who had driven all the way from Ohio to join the protest.  Fry recalls an exciting meeting and a hug.   LaVoy's death would inspire David to continue the protest after Finicum's death and the arrest of its leadership.

Fear and paranoia were driving forces in the federal government's response, reflected in the media reports about the 'armed occupation' of the refuge.    The people on the refuge were often unarmed and to the extent they were armed, they carried weapons only for self-defense.

The armed militia types that showed up were either FBI informants or in the case of one group of Idaho III Percenters who rolled into the Oregon Standoff protest site a few days after it began, were asked to leave by the unarmed leader of the protest, Ammon Bundy.

It was obvious trouble was coming a week or so ahead of time when letters from Oregon Governor Kate Brown were published.    The letters to federal authorities in Washington were demanding "action".

It was obvious these letters were the pretext for violent action against the non violent protest.

My expectations were that FBI action might even start the weekend before the fateful evening of Tuesday January 26th.

FBI informant Mark McConnell was sending GPS information on Ammon Bundy's location that weekend.  McConnell was hanging with Brandon Curtiss of the III Percenters as a stark picture of a massive FBI buildup was presented to Ammon Bundy, a scary picture, maybe one designed to end the protest.

McConnell ended up being the driver of the vehicle Ammon Bundy was in and was able to stop the vehicle to deliver Bundy into the hands of the FBI.

But LaVoy Finicum was driving the other vehicle and decided to keep moving up the road to reach the town of John Day in Grant County where the meeting was scheduled for the evening to discuss Constitutional rights.

As LaVoy's truck came up against the roadblock on Route 395 and went into the snowbank, FBI agents from the "Hostage Rescue Team" opened fire.   Two rounds were fired with one hitting the top of the truck.

LaVoy Finicum exited the truck with his hands up and began to move away from the truck when he was shot in the back by an Oregon State Police officer.

The investigation done by Oregon authorities exonerated their own police but uncovered the FBI agents coverup of their shooting, which the Justice Department said it was investigating last year through its inspector general's office.

The story is that LaVoy Finicum was acting evasive and was said to have been reaching for his pocket.   He was exercising his Second Amendment right by carrying a pistol.

One thing is obvious, that if law enforcement says it feels threatened by someone,  there is a 007 "license to kill".    Members of law enforcement are more quickly and easily exonerated than individual citizens who might be in a similar situation,

There have been massacres of law enforcement in the last year perpetrated by crazy, insane militant people.   That is wrong.

Just as the Black Lives Matter crowd often live in an ideology that says 'women', 'minorities', 'LGBTQ' or 'immigrants' are special honored classes of people, we cannot create a special class called 'law enforcement' who can kill people at will when they are fearful of or perceive to be threatening.

All of us are equal and the same in the sight of our Creator.  God is no respecter of persons.

This is the United States of America, not the Soviet world of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" where some were 'more equal than others'.

Law enforcement wasn't even dealing with insane perps in the case of Ammon Bundy, LaVoy Finicum or the other leaders of the Oregon Standoff protest.    They did not deserve to be herded into an ambush which led to LaVoy's murder and injury to Ryan Bundy.

The ''armed militant occupation" at the Malhur National Wildlife Refuge was a nonviolent protest and no one fired shots.    David Fry acted in the last days of the protest to remove firearms from the campsite he and the three others used in the parking lot.   It was ludicrous for the FBI to be telling him to lay down his weapon as they assaulted the protest,  since he and the others had none.

The federal government lived in a fantasy world in regards to this protest driven by fear and false notions that the protest leaders were violent and extreme.

If there is a protest needed in the future, let the spirit of non-violence prevail even more so than it did at the Oregon Standoff.

God Bless LaVoy's family and may they find justice in the days and months ahead.

BLOGGER ORDERED TO REMOVE POSTS ABOUT     

               OREGON STANDOFF INFORMANTS

                             GARY HUNT GIVEN 24 HOURS TO COMPLY

U.S. District Court Judge Anna J. Brown ruled from Portland, Oregon yesterday that blogger Gary Hunt in California has 24 hours to remove posts he made at his "Outpost of Freedom" blog about FBI informants in the Oregon Standoff case.  The 24 hours start when Hunt is served by an FBI agent.

Hunt told "Oregon Live"  last night after Brown's ruling earlier in the day that an FBI agent had called him about serving him the order.  Hunt said he is consulting with lawyers and that he wouldn't now how to remove the posts if he decided to do so.

There have been no updates from Hunt on his blog regarding Judge Brown's order.  Earlier posts are showing on his blog right now including those about the informants.

The address for Hunt's blog is:

http://outpost-of-freedom.com/blog/

UPDATE;  GARY HUNT SAYS HE HAS BEEN SERVED BY AN  FBI AGENT BUT SAYS THE OREGON FEDERAL COURT'S JURISDICTION DOES NOT APPLY TO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, WHERE HE LIVES.    FRIDAY 430am........

            THE OREGON STANDOFF REMEMBERED

                    "I love those dear hearts and gentle people who live in my home town because those dear hearts and gentle people will never, ever let you down.  They read the Good Book from Friday till Monday, that's how the weekends go....there's a place I'd like to go and its back in Idaho where your friendly neighbors smile and say hello......"

                                                         Bing Crosby "Dear Hearts and Gentle People"  (1949)

                      Singer Bing Crosby had a ranch in northern Nevada and built a summer home in Idaho and had great affection for the rural Western way of living as expressed in his 1949 recording.

                       It was out of this way of living that  Ammon Bundy came, growing up on his father's Nevada ranch and moving to Idaho;

  

                        Ammon's heart was moved by the plight of ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond, ordered back to federal prison to serve a mandatory five year sentence as terrorists for lighting a backfire to protect their land in Harney County, Oregon.    Their imprisonment followed many years of federal restrictions on the use of their land for farming and ranching by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

                       Ammon Bundy was moved to take the action described in the "Good Book" simply as "Love thy Neighbor".

                       And in deciding to occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge one year ago today Ammon Bundy did more than speak the words of God, he took the actions of God.   That's something I find really hard to do because it  involves giving of one's self sacrificially.

                       For Ammon Bundy and others, their actions one year ago would be sacrificial including arrest, imprisonment, trial and for one man, LaVoy Finicum, the ultimate sacrifice.

                       The Oregon Standoff protest leaders did not carry guns at all during the protest (as revealed at the trial where they were acquitted) and Ammon Bundy even referred to Dr. Martin Luther King as an example.   Firearms were around the site of the protest, but only in a Second Amendment self-defense capacity and they ended up never being used by the protestors.

                        Some people who like to show off and shoot off firearms did show up at the protest.   Among them the FBI informants    There were others who had strong political opinions and echoed Republican Party leaders who opposed the protest to begin with.

                         Just like Dr. Martin Luther King would run into opposition from Democrat leadership like John F. Kennedy trying to stop or curtail Civil Rights protests in the early 1960's, the Republican politicos were quick to oppose the Oregon Standoff protest and call for it to be shut down.  All of the Republican presidential candidates called for the protest to end at its beginning.

                         But the protest continued even after the leaders were arrested on January 26th lasting 41 days in the end.

                          A lot has happened in the last year.    From his jail,  Ammon's father  Cliven Bundy endorsed Donald Trump.    The Bundy Family and their supporters hope President Trump will take action to free prisoners and right wrongs that have been done to farmers and ranchers by the federal government through its "Bureau of Land Management" and the rest of the alphabet soup of federal regulatory agencies.