It’s a sad day in America when a man, husband, father, grandfather and patriot loses his life for nonviolently standing for what he believes in. LaVoy Finicum is believed to have had his life taken, in cold blood, by the unnecessary use of force committed under the color of FBI authority. [“Shots fired, 1 killed in arrest of Oregon militants,” Associated Press article, Jan. 27] Eyewitnesses’ audio testimony on the Bundy Ranch Facebook page declares that LaVoy Finicum had surrendered with his hands in the air behind his head and was shot by the FBI.
The media has already reported the incident as a shootout (and how they know this should be questioned because there was no media there at the time), so, any information that the media is getting, you have to wonder where it’s coming from. Shootout! In order to have a shootout, you have to have two parties shooting at each other. Ammon Bundy and his men never fired a single shot.
There were only two parties there at the time: the FBI and the people that the FBI had invited to come to a meeting for negotiation. Ammon Bundy and his men were invited by the FBI to go to a meeting of peaceful negotiation. They got in their cars and went, but the FBI never let them get to the peaceful negotiation.
The FBI conducted a traffic stop, and that’s curious because were they speeding? Did they have a headlight out? Was there a missing tag light? What exactly was the premise for the traffic stop? These men had yet to be charged with a crime, no indictments, no warrants, and a traffic stop was conducted? Will there ever even be a report written about what this conducted traffic stop was all about?
This was a setup by the FBI from the get-go. In their credit, the FBI did not want to engage the refuge, they did not want to bring any type of force to the refuge, so, under the guise of a peaceful resolution to isolate Ammon Bundy and his men, they blocked off a road for 60 miles, stopped the men, and while they peacefully surrendered, LaVoy, with hands in the air, was still shot at. Who is the aggressor here? If no shots were fired back, who is the aggressor?
Connect the dots and think about some things that we know to be true. The Malheur Refuge is public lands. What is against the law about occupying public lands and public buildings? The place was not barricaded with mortars, rocket launchers, armaments and tank turrets, as some of the media is posting; they simply carried firearms as the Constitution guarantees them a right to. They were simply carrying their firearms for the protection of their God-given right to life, liberty and property.
It should not be radical to see people exercising their rights, or carrying firearms. In this day and age, it should be no more radical than seeing people on a street corner speaking their minds. What happens when rights become radical? What happens when the government occupies land they have no authority to occupy? We have this narrative that the Bundys were illegally occupying land; last I checked, they call it “public lands.”
If it’s illegal for the people to occupy public lands, but not illegal for the federal government to exercise a control over land by force, when it’s completely unconstitutional to do so, what kind of world do we live in? Lawful is illegal, unlawful is legal. It doesn’t have to be lawful to be legal; the federal government owning land may be legal, but it is not lawful when it is contrary to the Constitution.
Peaceful protests are how we bring these things into focus and into attention. We need people to understand that the federal government has now proven to us they are willing to forcibly and unlawfully take our land. We need more peaceful protests; we need farmers and ranchers who are sick and tired of the federal government and their puppet media dictating the narrative.
I’m absolutely sick to death over the disgusting display of our media, and I am calling out Fox, Breitbart and all the people who fake it when they say they are for the conservative constitutional people. John Adams wrote a letter to his wife, Abigail, and he said, “I am more sick and more ashamed of my own Countrymen, than ever I was before.” America has a man down, and the only thing these puppets can talk about is Donald Trump and the debate.
The blood of an innocent man and a people trying to peacefully protest are upon you for hiding your heads in the sand like an ostrich and not reporting the truth.
Robert Duff
Smyrna