Armed occupation of Malheur refuge was ‘dress rehearsal’ for violent takeover of nation’s Capitol, extremist watchdogs say
Updated Jan 08, 2021;
Posted Jan 07, 2021
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)Getty Images
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Five years ago this month, Ammon Bundy led a 41-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge after protesting the return to federal prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fire to public land.
Bundy was acquitted of all charges after his arrest on allegations of conspiracy and impeding federal employees through intimidation, threat or force.
When a group violently attacks a government institution in an effort to change the lawful governmental order, it is insurrection, says an expert on the US Constitution.
“We’re experiencing a period of public political protest like nothing in recent memory,” says Greg Magarian, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “It has never been more important than it is at this moment to distinguish among different kinds of public political action.”
“When a group violently attacks a government institution in an effort to change the lawful governmental order, that’s insurrection. It’s terrorism.”
Protest is when people assemble and speak lawfully in public, he says. “Protesters may form in large groups. They may use harsh language. They may scream at law enforcement officers. That’s all still protest. It’s all perfectly lawful and Constitutionally protected.”
A group known as the Center for Western Priorities released a statement Thursday, calling the 2016 armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge a "dress rehearsal" for the insurrection at the U. S. Capitol on Wednesday. KATU asked Oregon historical and political experts about that assertion, and they agree, to an extent. "You can think of some incidents of fringes who try to take over federal property," said Kerry Tymchuk, executive.
The Road to the Capitol Went Through Malheur There’s a clear connection between this week’s attempted coup and a decades-old conflict over federal control of public land in the American West. Maureen Nandini Mitra
January 8, 2021
Wednesday’s criminal attack on the US Capitol by a mob of right-wing extremists egged on by a sitting president was eerily familiar to many in the environmental movement who have been closely following some of these groups’ assaults on public lands in recent years, including the 2016 armed occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.
Many of the extremist and militia outfits that participated in the January 6 armed insurrection against our democracy, including the Oath Keepers and III Percenters, are the same ones that have targeted national forests, parks, monuments, and wildlife refuges in the West to advance their anti-government beliefs. Photo by Tim Aubry / Greenpeace