Militia Leader Refuses Sheriff's Roadside Offer To End Standoff: "I Don't Need An Escort"
On Tuesday, Harney County Sheriff David Ward told reporters it was time for Ammon Bundy and the group of militiamen occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to “leave the community, go home, and end this peacefully.”
Bundy, we noted, had no such plans.
The handful of armed men holed up in a remote bird sanctuary say they are standing up for state’s rights in a kind of ad hoc, haphazard rekindling of the Sagebrush Rebellion.
The proximate cause for the occupation was the (re)sentencing of Dwight Hammond and his son Steven, who a judge ruled should be sent back to jail in connection with fires the two lit in 2001 and 2006. Although the Hammonds aren’t protesting their sentence, Bundy wants to see them go free before the militiamen give Linda Beck (the biologist at whose desk Bundy now sits at Malheur) her office back.

(from left to right: Bundy, his bodyguard Wes, Dwight Hammond, and Linda Beck)
On Thursday, Sheriff Ward attempted to reason with the men.
In a scene right out of a (bad) movie, Bundy and his bodyguards drove to a “neutral location” that Reuters says was located “along a remote Oregon roadside,” for a meeting with the Sheriff.

In the meeting - which apparently lasted “about five minutes” - Ward offered the men safe passage out of the state if they agreed to cede control of the snowy federal outpost.


In short, Bundy said no.
As you can see from the video, the Sheriff seems to be at a loss when it comes to figuring out exactly what it is Bundy wants, but he is convinced that it's not safe to open local schools until the standoff is resolved. "We pose no threat whatsoever to the people," Bundy insists. "It only takes one unstable person and we know that," Ward counters.
“Ward told Bundy that he was seeking a peaceful resolution to the nearly week-long standoff and offered to escort the occupiers out of Oregon,” Reuters writes. “But Bundy, saying that the sheriff had not addressed the occupiers' grievances, declined.” "We're being ignored sir," he can be heard saying.
Bundy also seems to have been offended by the notion that he needed a police escort to leave Oregon. "I'm not afraid to go out of state. I don't need an escort,” he later told reporters. Here's a bit more from the Oregonian:
The parley between Bundy and the sheriff lasted between five and 10 minutes and took place in the open, at the intersection of a state highway and the back route to the refuge. It was another in a series of twists and turns the past week that have drawn national and international attention to this sparsely populated high desert country.
Ward was accompanied to the remote location by Sheriffs Brian Wolfe of Malheur County and Andy Long of Tillamook County as well three rigs carrying heavily armed law enforcement officers.
Ward met Bundy on the side of Lava Bed Road, a handful of media surrounding the men. Bundy was accompanied by Ryan Payne, a self-styled militiaman from Montana.
Ward explained he was there to resolve the standoff. He said he didn't want anyone to get hurt.
"We need to find a peaceful resolution and get you guys out of here," he said.
Bundy, wearing his trademark cowboy hat, told Ward, "We mean no harm to anybody."
Bundy went into his oft-repeated comments about why the militants had arrived to take over the refuge.
"We're here for the people of Harney County," he said. "We're here because people were being ignored." He said citizens have complained over and over about federal land-use issues.
"Yet, sheriff, you would not address those concerns," Bundy said. "We're getting ignored again."
Ward replied, "I didn't come here to argue."
The men shook hands, Bundy and Payne returning to the small convoy that brought them to the scene on a gravel road roughly 20 miles east of the refuge. It was apparent Bundy brought a security detail with him.
Ward climbed into a sheriff's rig and headed off over back roads to a town hall meeting in the small community of Diamond. He met about 50 citizens there to talk about the refuge occupation and hear their concerns.
And so, there was no common ground to be found on Lava Bed Road near Highway 78. Only a cold (both figuratively and literally) handshake.
The Sheriff would later say that he believes Bundy doesn't feel like the standoff is being taken seriously. "I don't feel like they think they're getting enough attention yet," he remarked.
But while Bundy says he "doesn't need an escort" out of the state, he may get one anyway because as Ward cautiously warned the group on Thursday, "at some point, this is all going to have to be resolved."
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It's about to get real now. They just signed thier death warrant. I'll bet one thing though, they won't be watching the NFL.
I am still hoping for a peaceful end to this.
I'd like to see them call for a coordinated campaign to take back all BLM land.
This is fucking stupidity. There are more informants and agents there than geniune truthers. The ones that are "genuine" are stupid and reckless. None of this helps our cause.
Hey Bundy, want to make a difference?
6 words "9/11 was an inside job".
Unarmed Standoff in Texas Park!!!!
"...but he is convinced that it's not safe to open local schools until the standoff is resolved."
It's for the chilluns!
That's how you know this Sheriff is either carrying the Governor's water, or is a fucking idiot.
I said same thing to myself - WHAT? Close schools that are not in proximity to the wildlife refuge?
Why not close schools in the whole g*ddamn state? JESUS H CHRIST!
Not unless the feds plan to do a Waco on the g*ddamn schools and blame it on the occupiers. That sheriff is a fucking moron as most of them are.
Uncle Fraud owning so much land (even in trust) IS unconstitutional but hell, we have so many other issues that are far, FAR more important. I wish them the best of luck but my prediction is that they are all going to prison. And if anybody fires a shot it will be the trigger happy pigs that start it and if its not captured on film, it will ALL be blamed on the occupiers. If it IS captured on film the pigs will confiscate it after everybody is dead and make sure it disappears. I hope they have a contingency for disappearing evidence. Even if it is sent to the cloud, the feds will probably have some method for intercepting it and making it disappear. Uncle Fraud will do and spend WHATEVER it takes to put the occupiers in the worst possible light conceivable.
Right on BB. The fact is the people there would be more likely to jump in front of a bullet for a kid (black, white. brown, whatever) than any body else. It's an issue of state's rights and that's not going to be addressed (I listen to NPR so you don't have to). We're hosed until the whole shit show collapses...
9/11....Mossad did it.
I didn't percieve you as being a IQ<80 WTFRLY.
The fact is, each & every man has, the right, to chose his OWN battles.
Metaforically & Literally.
Ammon Bundy has chosen, 'his fight'.
Show some Respect & Stop being a Clown.
That's true, but it doesn't change the fact that people also have the right to point out how idiotic Bundy's strategy is.
You MUST be a fucking govt troll or wannabe Rambo, cause you have no CLUE about the players ir issues involved. Bundy is under the spell of two grifters named Ryan Payne and Blair Cooper. Both a,m sure are also federal assets. When things go south, they will disappear and or get immunity. http://alt-market.com/articles/2776-oregon-standoff-federal-provocateurs...
You MUST'nt be so 'sure' of your conclusions.
Try this: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=XuscitizenSweden
I still find it amusing they are talking about bundy and the rest 'just ending this and going home'. It's funny that they actually treat this as a realistic option, as if they won't all be arrested and put away for a long time. That sheriff may be genuine in his offer to escort them out of oregan and leave it at that, as he probably just wants this all out of his county and doesn't much care after that, but the Feds will bring federal charges against them. How can they not? Even of they leave peacefully and without firing a shot(which I hope does happen, this clownshow is not helping anyone) they will still be facing long prison terms.
Let .gov indict Hitlery before Bundy!!
clownshow? Oh yeh I saw that one, comedians in cars or what was it called?
President Camacho is a funny guy, no doubt.
"they will still be facing long prison terms."
Yeah, just ask Irwin Schiff...oh wait, the Feds wouldn't even release him so he could die at home.
Bundy needs to STFU and go home. This is the wrong issue to pick a fight with the feds with. The offer from the sheriff was extremely reasonable. This guy has a death wish.
BUNDY DOES NOT REPRESENT THE MILITA.
Orrrr, there's an alternative motive designed to make the militias look bad.
Orrr, Bundy realized that he has few to no real "get out of the chair and join the cause" supporters, but he's already stepped in shit yet has too much pride to admit he looks like an idiot. Never discount ego.
Bundy seems to have pre-maturely ejaculated any real uprising.
Alex Jones and other controlled opposition agents would be proud.
You may be getting warmer. Its all about the key players.
"The government boasts that over 87% of the information on revolutionaries collected by the state comes from informants, members of organizations solicited by the police or people placed within a group to gather information."
I know a fair number of folks in this particular orbit, and from what I've seen, not a single one of them thinks Bundy represents them or their ideals, and all of them think this particular course of action is retarded.
Either this is an example of self-reinforcing groupthink gone off the rails, or other motives are at play.
What do they think about very other element of this aside from Bundy? Their course of action is pretty commonplace and that is to do nothing and encourage others to do the same thing.
.
Bundy and his clan live in a little bubble. In their mind this is the right thing to do. lots of people who do crazy things come from this isolated and insane position.
Don't forget Bundy is a self-describe Mormon (only the first 'm' is needed) and likely suffers from serious bouts of frontier mentality, self-importance and grandiosity. After all, the Feds gave him a free ride not too long ago. Maybe a superman syndrome has settled into that pea brain of his.
44MagnumPrepper,
Sure don't disagree with your analysis. The Bureau of Land Managment is a serious problem, not only in the west but all across the nation. But what the Bundy group is doing is not bringing attention to the issue in such a way to create support.
Selecting the right time and place to protest government over reach requires much more planning. And this is neither the time, nor the place. I hope cooler heads prevail.
It would be really great if someone could reach out to him and let him know that his current path will do nothing but make militias a dirty word and empower the feds even more. Oh, and if he thinks he'll go down as a martyr if it ends in a shootout he's fucking delusional.
Get in contact with Payne and Cooper, they know what this is about.
Just a heads up: you sound quite sane and reasonable. As such you are wasting your time trying to use intelligence and reason with the vast majority of posters on this website. Although, I'm guessing you have figured that out already by the down votes and comments about conspiracy theories over why Bundy is actually doing this.
But he does represent A militia.
Others don't have the monopoly on that.
Why is this the wrong issue? The federal overreach has wiped out over a dozen farming families in that area and incorrectly incarcerated the Hammond's under false charges of Terrorism.
The FED has absolutely zero jurisdiction to do what they are doing, but no one stands up to them.
Half of the people on this site correctly think that there's only one way out of the FEDS power grab, but NO ONE seems willing to take action... When someone does they get derided as a loon.
It's weird! We, as a people, sure do like our perceived safety! Plenty enough to give our rights up to our all seeing protector... Go FED!
The mistake here IMHO is not the "issue" but the call to bring arms. There was no need for that here, unlike the earlier Bundy standoff when armed agents descended on a peaceful family.
After reading beowolf's link: https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/malheur-another-pe...
I submit to this probably being a false flag that will likely end with horrible implications for any resistance to the FED in the long run. There's just not going to be any peaceful means to stop the fed from the land and power grab that's going on.
It's not that... it's just dumb to pick a fight when there is no chance of victory.
I think most ZHers underestimate the depth of the hole we're in. We've reached a point at which all options are bad, and none is likely to lead to widespread human freedom in our lifetimes. People hate it when you say that; nobody wants to think about working towards something they won't see teh end result of. But i really do think it is that bad. Nobody can fight the system; they depend on it utterly. Three days of the trucks not running == mass starvation.
Also, I think too many would-be revolutionaries tell themselves stories that feel meaningful to them (not to mention make themselves feel like badasses) and then try to make those stories a reality. Being outside with a gun shooting assholes for a good cause seems meaningful and makes you feel like Rambo, so you jump on that story. But it;s an outdated mentality... a mentality born of an age when an armed populace could butt heads with teh military on something approaching equal terms, and people's basic needs were locally sourced. This is not those times.
Honestly, if you wannted to fuck things up the best way would be to start sabotaging infrastructure. Why aren't more of you so-called revolutionaries out cutting fiber lines and shit like that? These days you can leverage far more destructive force through a few simple acts of sabotage without even taking that much risk, but instead you wanna throw yourselves out on the field of battle against vastly superior weaponry. WTF are you smoking?
"no chance of victory"?
How, exactly, do you define "victory"?
Victory as in taking on the present ruling powers, defeating them, and replacing them with something that affords the average human more freedom. We're not going to achieve that via open warfare; anyone who tries it is going to get slaughtered. Clandestine methods are the only way, and it's going to take several generations. even then there is no guarantee of victory. We;re in a deep, deep hole.
Well of course any one who tries will be slaughtered, but if maybe 35 million (1/10th of the population) had enough and took up arms, the tyrants would be gone.
Sabotage may or may not have an effect, but you're hurting your own communities and turning those who use said systems against your cause.
I do agree though that no change will happen quickly, and that clandestine acts afford a much higher rate of success if you don't have the critical mass for revolt.
Clandestine how?
Build a ranch? Get a bunch of people together? Grow more and more poor together? Talk about some great plans for "the future?"
After the feds take the ranch from you, and you sit there doing nothing, then what?
Better yet, it doesn't happen to you. It just happens to your neighbor. Do you console them, and take care of them, never even giving a thought to the fact that the government has no right to their home?
When do you fight back?
This is long overdue. How far do brainwashed and weak Americans want to let this go, until they are
at your house telling you to move out for an endagered flea? After they disarm us, because that is
their goal.
These guys are the last real men standing in this country who care about the country and not THEMSELVES!
God be with them, Guns be with them.
You need to read this:
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/malheur-another-pe...
This link changed my thinking about what Bundy is doing. Whomever wrote was speaking in the video is probably exactly right on the outcome and the setup.
Only the people who were at the Bundy ranch will know who is a government agent.
If they even know.
The Feds are putting out disifo, distraction and chaos.
Maybe these guys want to get killed to kick something off now.
Who knows, it will end the way it is supposed to end to set the table
for what is coming down the road.
No true Scotsman...
almost as bad as those one guys way back in history making a big deal out of a tea tax..and dumping it all in the ocean....over TEA !!!!!
those silly bears, dont they know they should only stand up when YOU say they should ?
"BUNDY DOES NOT REPRESENT THE MILITA"
Who the fuck is "The Militia", exactly??? And who are you to speak for that, whatever it is?
It seems pretty clear that Bundy has decided to represent himself, and anyone else who thinks like him.
Now, Bundy has made a few big missteps. For one, it would be a lot smarter to keep the guns out of sight. Carry concealed handguns, and leave the rifles in the trucks. Now the media can paint them as armed lunatics, which of course they are doing.
But that said-- how the fuck else do you think the media is going to portray these guys?? Even if the guns were out of sight, they have plenty of other ways to demonize these guys. No matter what, the mainstream media coverage was going to be GROSSLY distorted. So complaining about how Bundy "looks like an ass" or is "misrepresenting" other parties-- what were you expecting, exactly?
The fact is, Bundy is doing an outstanding job drawing attention to this issue for the benefit of like-minded people. And that's the point: your average SWPL idiot isn't going to be converted, much less your hardcore libtard. But there are a lot of conservative-minded people who simply weren't aware of the BLM's outrageous behavior-- especially those who aren't westerners. Bundy is helping to consolidate and rally conservatives against the filthy, corrupt tactics of the BLM; if that's all he accomplishes, he has been successful.
Bundy needs to put away the guns, keep a low profile, keep talking, and continue his peaceful occupation until the Feds do something stupid...which they will do, given enough time. Hopefully that "something stupid" doesn't get anyone killed-- but if the Feds shoot first, that will be on them forever. Obviously, if the Bundy side shoots first, that is the worst possible outcome, and the only thing worth worrying about.
The militia is a bunch of different groups.
One of the things the government has done is to twart the ability to organize
and to infiltrate real groups. Only they organize groups, like Black Lives Matter, because
they own it.
Green close on SnP today will resolve all of that.
IRAN Embassy hostage situation went on for more than a year. FEDS would be smart to repeat that. Ignore them. Turn off the electricity, water. Road block the entrance.