In Oregon, the stand-off continues:
The leader of an armed standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge issued an ominous warning to law enforcement agencies Wednesday that any attempt to evict his band could lead to bloodshed.
“We have remained peaceful,” tweeted Ammon Bundy. “If the authorities raid us unnecessarily we can’t guarantee that continues. We are prepared to defend ourselves.”
Bundy later added: “Don’t point guns at us and we won’t point guns back. This can still end peacefully.’”
I have made my general distaste for the Bundys’ tactics clear enough, and I stand by my initial assessment. You don’t have a right to occupy federal property, however upset you are. If the Bundys want to break the law, that’s fine. But they should follow the grand tradition of American civil disobedience and pay the price that such behavior invariably invites. Likewise, if they want to start a revolution, they should start a revolution — and they should accept that if they lose they will be executed for treason. What they should not do is take over property that is not their own and expect to get away with it. There is no room in the American order for that.
That said, there is also no pressing reason for the federal government to push this issue. I daresay that nobody in Washington D.C. wants to see a precedent set here, but armed occupations such as this one are not happening as a matter of routine in 2015 and there is therefore no real reason to go in hard. As far as I can see, the building that the “militia” has taken is not being used, and its occupation is of no real inconvenience to anybody. I will grant that there is a thin line between playing it safe and indulging lawbreakers, but, as we learned at Waco, one had better have an excellent reason to resort to deadly force. No such reason obtains here.
That, alas, has been lost on many. Per the Washington Times:
Television personality Montel Williams, a former Marine, called Sunday for a “massive use of deadly force” against the armed anti-government protesters who have taken over a building in a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon.
Mr. Williams began his rant Saturday evening by retweeting a post from a user who said the anti-government group, joined by Ammon Bundy, the 40-year-old son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, “should be dealt with as Waco was dealt with.”
Let me put this simply: Everybody should hope that this doesn’t happen. Not just conservatives who are embarrassed by the group; not just gun owners who fear that they will be lumped with the shooters should anything happen; not just other ranchers who have a legitimate beef with Washington but haven’t expressed it by taking over federal property. Everybody. Leaving aside that it is at this point entirely unnecessary, a “massive use of deadly force” in Oregon would rip the country apart and serve to further alienate Americans from one another. If Montel Williams thinks that another Waco would in some way calm America down — or teach its recalcitrant elements a lesson — he needs to lay off the metal polish.
Nobody Should Hope for Violence in Oregon