Tl;dr version: A militia group occupied a park office to protest ranchers who were given trumped-up charges for setting controlled fires on land the feds shouldn’t own, but they forgot to bring enough food so PETA send them vegan jerky.
A self-described militia organization occupied an office building at the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon just over a week ago. So far, the event has garnered bemusement, but as of this writing, no shots have been fired. In the absence of exciting action, we have an opportunity to discuss the “why”. It’s kind of a weird story.
There are two cattle ranchers from Southeastern Oregon named Dwight and Steve. As ranchers, they need lots of grassland for their cows. In ranching, small fires are set to clear away brush and shrubs in order to allow more grass to grow. While not controllable with complete precision, small fires like these are a fairly time-tested method of land maintenance. Do not come away with the impression that this was brazen, oblivious arson. On it’s own, this should not be much cause for concern. The caveat is, though, that a huge portion of land out west is owned by the federal government.
The feds allow ranchers access to the land–and pretty cheap access too–but burning requires a permit. And Dwight and Steve didn’t get one, but they ended up burning federal lands anyway. On more than one occasion. For the most part, this is more contempt of the bureaucratic process than anything. The ranchers apparently didn’t want to deal with the system and feel that the feds have no business owning the land. And there’s validity to that gripe. The feds really have no business keeping all that land. After the land was annexed from Mexico all the way back in 1847, the federal government took control over it, and the idea was that as states were formed out west, the feds would cede the land to the respective states. But things kept coming up, I guess, and self-interest and probably a huge helping of laziness built into an impenetrable inertia that culminated in the thrillingly titled Federal Land Policy and Management Act that basically said, screw it, it’s the feds’ in perpetuity now.
So Dwight and Steve burned land–that the feds arguably have no business owning–without a permit. Kind of dick move, but hardly anything evil. But after the 1996 Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing, Americans demanded we “do something” to stop domestic terrorism from ever happening again, and our politicians responded with alacrity by doing “something”. Never-mind that detonating bombs that kill people is already super illegal. Like so many laws, it’s not about pragmatism, it’s about wanting to feel safe in a scary an unpredictable world filled with horrors we ultimately have no control over. So, because Congress is Tough On Crime TM, Congress passed mandatory minimum sentences for a variety of crimes on federal property, such as arson. See where this is going? Dwight and Steve were convicted a couple years ago of the various arson charges for the fires and served 3 and 10 months in prison respectively. But a judge later caught the mistake the first judge had made by not enforcing the mandatory minimum sentencing laws, which called for a minimum of 5 years prison (Dwight is 73, btw). So instead of being treated like guys who were skirting laws ostensibly put in place to make sure people don’t start major forest fires, these ranchers were being retried as domestic terrorists intent on torching property with callous indifference to possible residents.
A guy in Nevada named Ammon, son of a rancher who made a ruckus in 2014, took objection to the situation on behalf of the Oregonian ranchers. He decided to organize an expedition with his brother an another guy up to Oregon to confront the federal government on the matter, which he claims he is doing so at the behest of God. When he got to Oregon, he and his associates, who are being referred to as a militia, occupied a “federal building”–according to a number of media reports I’ve seen. The “federal building” may be technically correct, but it’s a disingenuous choice, considering that it’s effectively an allusion to the aforementioned Oklahoma City Federal Building bombings of 1996. It’s not a major office building that was filled to the brim with innocent people, it’s a small park building that was apparently not even occupied by employees at the time. Despite unconfirmed initial reports, there are only a small number of occupiers, perhaps a dozen at most.
-The building in question
Dwight and Steve have disavowed the occupation, and told Ammon “thanks, but no thanks” when he explained his proposal. A number of local and national militia and patriot groups have involved themselves in the situation, which has so far remained quite cordial with law enforcement, with one group bringing McDonald’s to the FBI members stationed outside and chatting with them. Depending on your political affiliation and where you rank on the optimism-pessimism/paranoid-Pollyanna scale, both government and anti-government sides seem to be hopeful that a repeat of Waco can be avoided. Although the building occupiers are armed, they do not seem to be prepared for a prolonged siege, having requested via Facebook that people send snacks, which the internet promptly mocked with an overabundance of memes. Also, because this is America, animal euthanasia organization PETA seized the opportunity for a publicity stunt and sent them vegan “jerky”. Local county Sheriffs have spoken to the occupiers, as well as the FBI, although the occupiers seem reluctant to leave until their demands that the feds “relinquish” the lands to the locals are met, which is obviously not a realistic expectation. The situation is still on going at the time of this writing.