Kudo's to the way BLM and the FBI handled the Oregon incident.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

They've learned a lot from history, and if it wasn't for the wacko with a death wish reaching for his gun so he could be suicided by cop, there would have been no bloodshed. There shouldn't have been any bloodshed seeing how calm and responsible the authorities acted throughout the 41 days.

Some people were calling for action. Some were saying the authorities were afraid, and wimps, because the seemingly did nothing for so long.

All part of the plan. Great plan, carried out by some very responsible public servants. I can only say thank you for doing what you could to bring this to a peaceful conclusion.

If you agree that the Feds did a very honorable job, please K&R this thread for visibility.

[sharp_stick]

1. Absolutely

They did a great job. Now if there was some way to get the money spent on this back from the permanent moochers that squatted in the Wildlife refuge. That would make me happy.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

4. Now that Cliven is in jail too, maybe they can all come to their senses - nah - they don't have any

[sharp_stick]

12. Maybe they can sell Cliven's cattle finally

that would at least pay back some of what this government moocher owes.

[annabanana]

2. My tax dollars doing exactly what I want them to! . . . n/t

[pinboy3niner]

3. And a slew of charges are coming down on Cliven and others for the 2014 Nevada standoff

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

5. The Schadenfreude will be exquisite!

[randome]

6. Those right-wing radio asshats spent more than an hour trying to get Fry to come out.

Then, when they gave up but the line was still open, the FBI took over and everything changed. Until then, I was certain we would all hear a suicide on live radio.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]No squirrels were harmed in the making of this post. Yet.[/center][/font][hr]

[Wellstone ruled]

7. Kudo's to the Portland FBI Guys and Gals.

You go er done!

[moondust]

8. "Unprecedented restraint."

Well done.

[Hortensis]

9. Agree. I don't think I'd ever be stupid enough

to challenge the authority of a cop. The notion that whites are safe doing that is almost as inexcusably naive as imagining living while black isn't an especially risky business. But if I did, I'd choose a posse of U.S. Marshals (and hopefully live-stream YouTube for insurance).

[NobodyHere]

10. They got the job done in the end

So kudos

[malaise]

11. The pproblem here is that it was classic

white privilege - any other race or ethnicity would have been dead 40 days ago

[randome]

17. In general, I agree, yet the FBI is not the same as a local police force.

Not sure if the comparison is apt without stories of FBI agents having trigger fingers when confronting a non-white suspect.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]No squirrels were harmed in the making of this post. Yet.[/center][/font][hr]

[malaise]

18. Good point

[lpbk2713]

13. Make the squatters pay for the manhours and all other expenses.

They won't have to worry about any cattle or grazing problems ever again.

[jwirr]

14. Absolutely.

[avebury]

15. The Feds played it just right. They sat back and let them have enough time

and rope to hang themselves.

The cherry on top was Cliven Bundy being stupid enough to leave Nevada, his home turf. Had he stayed put it would have been problematic for the Feds to take him into custory. Instead, but getting on that plane, he litterally walked right into their arms (and no one was harmed in the process).

[phantom power]

19. I still don't understand this argument. What extra "rope" did they get by waiting?

Having the extra weeks allowed them to commit a few crimes, like bulldozing roads through federal land and archaeological sites, but then again they bulldozed federal land and archaeological sites so I don't really see that as a win.

Cliven Bundy is being brought up on charges for crimes he committed in 2014. It's still hard for me to believe that they waited 2 years hoping they could arrest him in an out-of-state airport.

[avebury]

21. The "rope" is the prolific use of social media that they used,

i.e. twitter, Facebook, youtube videos, interviews (video and audio), They gave the Feds boatloads of evidence to sift through to determine the final count of charges that will be leveled against this bunch of buffoons. I don't think we have seen the volume of charges that may eventually be leveled against them.

The other component of "rope" was allowing them to become complacent which made it easy for the Feds and Oregon State Troopers to roll up the leadership with only one death (Tarp Man).

Cliven Bundy became so complacent that he got on a plane and left his home turf. Had he stayed in Neveda it would have been problematic for the Feds to take him into custody and could have resulted in a lot of bloodshet. Instead, he literally walked right into the Feds' hands, something he probably had not anticipated.

With Cliven and two of his sons locked up, his two sons may also face charges related to the 2014 incident with the possibility of RICO charges being leveled against some of those arrested because there is proof of an ongoing conspiracy against the Federal Government. By waiting two years, the Feds may be able to up the ante on the charges leveled against the Bundys. They certainly have an even stronger case against them now then they did back then.

The Oregon standoff has not, in the long run, facilitated the Bundys' cause. The majority of Americans do not see them as people they want to support.

[phantom power]

22. I guess I can see that

I admit something about it all still seems non-intuitive to me. Then again I don't know how the FBI does their job.

Mostly I'm very happy they put these yo-yos behind bars. Hopefully it sends a message to the next group of wingnut warriors that this kind of horseshit comes with consequences.

[avebury]

24. My sister-in-laws youngest brother was a police officer

that was shot in the line of duty (survived) in a high profile case years ago (made it to two made for tv movies). Her family learned from that case that the FBI generally will not bring a charge unless they think they have a solid case.

In the case her brother was involved in, when they finally caught the guy the initial charge was bank robbery. When they arraigned the guy and it looked like the guy might get bonded out the FBI had gotten the evidence to add a charge for attempted murder of a police officer to which the Judge immediatley denied the defendant bail. The guy later on attempted to escape while on trial and killed two people before being killed.

This is the case:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-12-17/news/9104230259_1_bearded-bandit-police-officer-jeans-and-white-high-top

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995-07-17/features/9507170006_1_filming-normal-life-robbery

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20112142,00.html

http://articles.latimes.com/1992-07-21/news/mn-4364_1_bank-robbery

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995-07-17/features/9507170006_1_filming-normal-life-robbery

The couple acted like a modern day Bonnie and Clyde, had copies of the movie in their home, had their home boobie trapped, and so on.

[madokie]

16. Without a doubt

Only one causality and it didn't have to happen and wouldn't have had he not forced it.

The blue tarp thing showed he was not playing with a full deck and any respectful LEO would be leery of him from that point going forward. He could have stayed in the truck and come out with his hands up when they asked/demanded him too but no he wanted to kill the whole bunch, I guess, which was highly unlikely as was clearly the case as seen in the video. Dumb asses like him get killed when they do dumb ass shit like he did.

I feel sorry for his family for having to put up with his stupid ass as long as they did actually.

[phantom power]

20. I question the premise that they had to wait so long "to avoid violence"

It all worked out in the end, so that's cool, but just because it worked out well doesn't really constitute an argument that it couldn't have happened sooner.

What did they do that they couldn't have done several weeks ago? I just don't see it.

[Lee-Lee]

28. They did several things

They waited until the key leaders were all together, away from the others, and moved in on them. That meant they faced fewer people at once and let the FBI and OSP choose the time and place it happened- giving them the advantage in every way- and the only one dead did suicide by cop. And it took all the "leaders" away from the camp at once.

Then they arrested daddy Bundy at the airport as he stepped off the plane- where he couldn't have any weapons.

Each step was done in a way that the FBI had the advantage as much as possible.

[Nye Bevan]

23. Yep. Lots of folks wanted the Feds to storm in Waco-style with guns blazing,

but fortunately cooler heads prevailed. As I said at the time, it's good to have the grown-ups in charge.

[Rex]

25. They expected the losers to kill themselves off in the sanctuary.

Sad that one so wanted to kill LEOs...that he even tried, shows how out of touch and dangerous they were. You have to figure the FBI knew something we didn't when they let them come and go as they pleased.

[elleng]

26. YES!

[underpants]

27. Agreed

They moved at exactly the right time. I wonder what kind of profiling or dynamics were involved. I'll never know but they did this to a "T"

[leftyladyfrommo]

29. I think they were waiting for a chance to get Cliven

He may have been the one they really wanted. And they had to wait until he left Nevada and was put where they could pick him up.

And they were able to round up a whole bunch more if those guys in the meantime. And make it clear that that behavior was going to result in serious consequences even if it took some time.