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Showing posts with label LaVoy Finicum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LaVoy Finicum. Show all posts

Sunday, January 12, 2020

A Martyr in Defense of Liberty

Periodically Justin Smith reviews the murder of LaVoy Finicum by the FBI (taking the lead). Finicum’s death resulted from rancher/farmer protests of intruding on their livelihood in relation to taking of their animal stock. Can you say intrusive-abusive fees and land restrictions in the name of eco-Marxists and greedy corporations?


The ironic union is motivated by protecting useless species and/or mining of metal ores often times enriching American Leftists selling out to foreign entities that offers risk rather than benefit to Americans.

The upset rancher/farmer often will cite U.S. Constitution Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 while the Leftist scoffs at the legal reasoning notably due unchallenged Congressional legislation and Judicial Activism. YET the rancher/farmer stand looks at the Constitution’s temporary stipulations of Federal control which SHOULD enable an individual State to reclaim Federally controlled land.

This is yet another dot connecting many Left-Right issues if connected to completion probably end in Civil War for a resolution.

JRH 1/12/20
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A Martyr in Defense of Liberty
LaVoy Finicum's Journey and His Destiny

By Justin O. Smith
Sent 1/11/2020 2:16 AM

Raised in the northwestern corner of Arizona Navajo territory, Robert LaVoy Finicum largely came to manhood in and around the sprawling area of Fredonia and Colorado City, Arizona, just off State Route 389, and Hildale, Utah, before his fateful death, his murder by law enforcement, near Burns, Oregon on January 26th 2016, just one day before his 55th birthday. His name is a hallowed one in the annals of the Patriot movement and the minds of most American Patriots, as a man who was willing to fight for those ideas of freedom and liberty and the Founding principles of America.

LaVoy led a small band of protesters, including Cliven Bundy's sons, Ryan and Ammon, American Patriots who understood that the federal government and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) were consistently and constantly acquiring or simply taking water and grazing rights and land unconstitutionally, from farmers and ranchers across America. These men and women were standing firm for property rights under Our Bill of Rights, when they occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on January 2nd 2016 and began a standoff with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, that lasted forty-one days.

[Blog Editor: In using various search engines I was disappointed that most links turned were quite negative toward ranchers and farmers being weary of the Federal government utilizing land control to manage the increasingly rare individual rural land owner’s decisions of their own ranch or farm. The perspectives were Left-Wing by far in the majority. The search engines emphasized an element of White Supremacism and racism among ranchers and farmers really more angry about imposed land limitations than politics. Most Western ranchers and farmers are Caucasians so it’s a bit moronic to call them White Supremacists. HOWEVER when White Supremacist organizations seemingly appear to offer support to generational ranch/farm operations, WHO do you think these ranchers and farmers will gravitate toward? AT ANY RATE who are two perspectives of the Malheur Occupation that too me appear Leftist yet with some sympathy toward rancher/farmer plights. The perspective was written prior to Bundy Judicial exonerations and the Hammond pardons:



LaVoy and anyone else with a proper understanding of America's Founding understood that the land is a gift of God to man to be individually commanded and cultivated to suit his purposes, and government officials do not have any right to interfere with this unalienable God-given right. In line with this same logic, Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution clearly states that land within the boundaries of a state may only be acquired by the national government, if it has the consent of the state legislature; and then, it can only acquire it for the placement of military forts, arsenals, dock yards and other needful buildings. This procedure was created to ensure that the national government could not simply grab land and use the land as a means to coerce the states and people to do their bidding and to expand its power past the limitations of the Constitution. And, this same principle applies to water and grazing rights, especially those handed down to pioneers' descendants from territorial grants preceding statehood.

It was from this point of view that LaVoy started his journey towards his destiny, in June 2015, as he wrote the following in two separate letters to the BLM, three days apart that read, in part: "At this time I feel compelled to stand (up for) the Constitution of our land and in doing so please do not feel I am attacking your character. This is not about cows and grass, access or resources, this is about freedom and defending our Constitution in its original intent ... I am severing my association with the BLM."

During this same time frame, LaVoy had expressed his displeasure over ranchers steadily being pushed out of grazing lands like the Grand Canyon-Pashant [Blog Editor: perhaps Parashant or Pesant?] and BLM tactics, after they called him and told him to remove 24 head of his cattle grazing on "BLM land", on the Arizona Strip. LaVoy replied that he was "not asking permission". 

After the BLM drained one of his water storage tanks to fight a grass fire, he exclaimed: "[The water is] mine. It's for my cows. I need it. Quit stealing." He later took to Youtube where he asked, "You gonna come in there like You did with my friend, Clive?" He concluded: "Well, I'm telling you, leave me alone. Leave me alone, leave Cliven alone."


Posted by LaVoy Finicum
8.06K subscribers - Aug 7, 2015]

This set the stage for LaVoy's trip to Harney County, Oregon to join Ammon and Ryan Bundy in the Malheur Refuge Occupation, after seeing so many other small ranchers treated unfairly by the BLM, with those truths previously mentioned solidified after standing alongside Cliven Bundy, during his standoff with the BLM. He and all the others were truly making a stand against the overreach of the federal government, and in the process, they hoped to get all America thinking more about liberty. 

Just as our Federalist Founders didn't want an all-powerful federal government, so too the people, who still hold the ideas espoused by LaVoy and others, such as Cliven Bundy, are simply wary and opposed to any heavy concentration of power in the hands of the federal government, since they have already witnessed, too often first hand, the manner that power is so easily abused, especially through the BLM. However, neither do they see government as evil, or even a necessary evil.

Far from the "white supremacists" and "domestic terrorists" that yellow journalists, such as Kevin Sullivan, and the establishment propaganda press, like the Washington Post, attempted to portray them as being, these men and women were simply strong advocates for a responsible, limited government that favored local solutions and a federalist system inhibiting the centralization of all government into the hands of the few, adhering to the full and proper use of the checks and balances and good government practices set forth in the Constitution.

Noted by B.J. Soper, head of the Pacific Patriots Network, in 2016, and by many patriots previous to and after him [ZeroHedge]: "We've let the government step over the line and rule us, and that was never the intent of this country." And I would add, it was certainly never the intent of our nation's Founders.

And given the dangerous assaults and violence exhibited by extremists in the protests of Black Lives Matter [the other BLM] and Occupy Wall Street, there isn't any justification for the actions of law enforcement against LaVoy and his fellow protesters, who were protesting peacefully, even if they had "taken" Malheur. People were initially able to come and go freely, until the protesters started blocking entrance from fear of federal government infiltration aimed at arresting and removing them, before they achieved their goals. LaVoy certainly wasn't so dangerous or violent a man that he had to be so sorely mistreated and ultimately executed.

Whether he was armed or not is irrelevant. We regularly see many militiamen at peaceful protests all over America, both socialists and conservatives, going armed with long guns and pistols. Going armed at a protest, as is Constitutionally protected from many legal perspectives, isn't a death warrant, or at least it shouldn't be. Our Constitution doesn't state that anyone must allow themselves to be abused by government agents, or anyone else, and it doesn't prevent any American from engaging in a proper and lawful act of self-defense, especially if one is defending themselves against government tyranny.

Passenger Shawna Cox captured the entire miserable and dastardly event on her cell phone, and I have watched the video with sound, that captured the moment of LaVoy's death, so many numerous times, often choking back my own angry tears, to think that people sworn to protect and defend the Constitution could so casually ignore it in this or any case; and, each time, I can only conclude this was a planned execution. 


Posted by The Oregonian
161K subscribers - Mar 8, 2016]

From the first roadblock stop and the shot that hit LaVoy's driver side mirror to the second roadblock, it becomes well and beyond apparent that this was a planned execution. The bullets were flying at LaVoy's vehicle before he could even come to a complete stop on the slippery snow-covered road, as the video does show, in fact, a bullet piercing the truck ceiling; and, as he exited the vehicle with hands raised, he was immediately hit in the side by a round, that caused him to flinch to that side -- offering the assassins their excuse "he was reaching for a gun" -- and multiple rounds then hit him and his life was ended.

Several FBI agents and Oregon Highway Patrol fired on LaVoy, but it was Casey Codding, of the Oregon Highway Patrol, who fired on the vehicle before it ever stopped. FBI agent Joseph Astarita fired the first shot after LaVoy jumped from the vehicle, to divert law enforcement's attention away from his friends, and in the course of the execution, Codding shot LaVoy in the back twice, just like a coward, even though LaVoy was not brandishing a firearm or any other weapon -- even though they knew that LaVoy was an innocent, peaceful rancher without any criminal history who had told them he was on his way to a meeting with the Sheriff of Grant County -- even though they knew he had a large family of eleven children and was a good man who had never threatened anyone.



FBI Joseph-Astarita murdered LaVoy Finicum

Most good police officers go their entire career without ever having to kill anyone. Codding has killed three people, including a teenager, "in the line of duty". He's also one of LaVoy's murderers.

Whatever happened to "protect and serve"? Who has police forces across the country so indoctrinated and so intensely concerned to the point they see ranchers and family men as the greatest enemy to their country?

There wasn't even one attempt to peacefully negotiate with the Malheur group and LaVoy Finicum, even though all LaVoy did at the refuge was speak to authorities in a non-threatening manner. It should deeply trouble all Americans that law enforcement had so little conscience and lack of reservation, they could easily shoot LaVoy with his hands raised; equally troubling, they didn't even check him for a pulse, until they had walked around his body for fifteen minutes, as they placed their lack of respect for human life on full display before the American people. 

Far too many law enforcement don't even understand what it really means to defend the Constitution and freedom, as they set about destroying the freedoms of the American people in an out-of-control display of power at the behest of mayors and governors using them to acquire greater influence and power, i.e. as we currently see unfolding in Virginia via Governor Northam and the Democrat majority in the Virginia legislature regarding proposed gun control measures. Wicked "leaders" could not so subvert our freedoms without willing murderers like Casey Codding.

CASEY CODDING another Finicum shooter

Today, all Americans must face the certain fact that our federal government is out-of-control and corrupt, nearly beyond the point of salvation. It will kill its own citizens if we try to live too freely, or so it does seem, of late. Who can ever remove the image from their mind, of Vicky Weaver being shot through the head, as she held her baby in her arms in the doorway of her husband's cabin on Ruby Ridge? An innocent American shot dead by FBI sniper, Lon Horiuchi, on August 21st 1992; look at Waco, Texas in 1993 and the overreaction of the ATF; one incident after another, until the standoff at Cliven Bundy's ranch, when armed patriots came to his defense and said "No More".

What has happened to this America I love so well, that one can barely distinguish between the Bad Guys and the Good Guys, in the ranks of those charged to protect and defend society? This case and the recent soft coup against the President indicate a great evil courses through their ranks today.

Throughout the history of the FBI, how many times has anyone in America seen any rancher draw his firearm on an FBI agent, or any other law enforcement agent? These ranchers aren't common low-down thugs. They are fine Americans, the salt of the earth.

Has there ever been an FBI agent who defended or aided or stood alongside a rancher, because it was the right thing to do and it kept with their oath to defend the Constitutional rights of those in their care? Has any FBI agent ever stepped outside his role as a government pawn protecting special interests, to actually protect the people he was supposedly hired to serve and protect?

LaVoy had stated, time and again, a desire to make sure that the standoff ended peacefully, and up until the day of the ambush, there wasn't any reason to believe that it wouldn't, since LaVoy had been in constant contact with Sheriff Glenn Palmer, who was quite sympathetic to the cowboy's cause. These men weren't "anti-government"; they were anti-tyranny. LaVoy would be alive and well at home, with his family today, acquitted of all wrong-doing, just as many other defendants associated with the standoff have been, if the FBI and the Oregon Highway Patrol had not escalated the situation.

Ironically, LaVoy wrote a book entitled “Only By Blood and Suffering”, originally published in 2015, that foreshadowed his own death. The protagonist, a cowboy, dies in a shootout with the federal government, just as LaVoy finally did.

Real American patriots, such as Robert LaVoy Finicum, are far and few between these days, especially in the ranks of our elected officials, since so many so-called conservatives claim to stand for the Constitution against the federal government's overreach, as they stand by silent and meek, in the wake of its insistent and continuous assaults against 'We the People' and our rights to life, liberty, property and freedom from the restrictions of arbitrary force. The faux conservatives are far too willing to allow federal power grabs to go unopposed, as a large, meddlesome, intrusive state and its progressive operated institutions undermine our private economy, economic liberty and the freedom to own property and allocate our own resources, enervating the country's civic character; but LaVoy Finicum was willing to go all the way, sacrificing himself and giving his life, in his fight against the Bureau of Land Management, in order to preserve those values that were established centuries ago that respect our God-given rights.

Twenty-one short months of LaVoy's life passed, between the time he showed up alone at the Bundy Ranch in 2014 and the moment he died a leader of the Malheur occupation in 2016. He died as he had lived, trying to make a difference and protecting the ideas and people he loved; he died a martyr in defense of freedom and liberty.

By Justin O. Smith
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Blog Editor: Rather than capitulate to Facebook censorship by abandoning the platform, I choose to post and share until the Leftist censors ban me. Recently, the Facebook censorship tactic I’ve experienced is a couple of Group shares then jailed under the false accusation of posting too fast. So I ask those that read this, to combat censorship by sharing blog and Facebook posts with your friends or Groups you belong to.
______________________
Edited by John R. Houk
Text embraced by brackets and source links are by the Editor.

© Justin O. Smith


Friday, July 27, 2018

The Finicum Family's Fight Is America's Fight



On January 26, 2016 – LaVoy Perished in a hail of unprovoked bullets from the FBI and Oregon State Police. The shooting was so egregious that FBI Agent Joseph Astarita is on trial for trying to cover-up his part for shooting LaVoy. LaVoy’s wife Jeanette Finicum has filed a wrongful death lawsuit which so far seems to be moving forward.

Justin Smith effectively memorializes the unjust murder as a warning that there are crooked FBI personnel willing to circumvent the Constitution for their own version of law enforcement. Be wary President Trump.

JRH 7/27/18
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The Finicum Family's Fight Is America's Fight
In Pursuit of Justice

By Justin O. Smith
Sent 7/26/2018 8:57 PM
Updated: 7/27/2018 3:21 PM

Nothing in the  pursuit of justice will ever restore the Finicum Family's joy and happiness, that they experienced, with LaVoy Finicum home and alive with them, but Jeanette Finicum has pursued justice from the day her husband was so unnecessarily shot down on a lonely stretch of Highway 395, due to his role as one of the leaders of the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Preserve.


Posted by  LaVoy Finicum
Published on Feb 9, 2018

Her perseverance has resulted in the trial of Joseph Astarita, the FBI agent who fired the shots and ignited the hailstorm of bullets that ended LaVoy's life, an ignoble act by the FBI and law enforcement who took part in the ambush, reminiscent of their action against Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge.

His trial underway as of this July 24th, Astarita stands accused of falsely denying that he fired two shots at LaVoy, and he is charged with three counts of making false statements and two counts of obstruction of justice. However, through scientific methods and aerial video of the ambush, it has been determined that it was Astarita who fired the first shots, as LaVoy exited his truck, something Astarita's lawyers still refute. They state a belief that it was one of the Oregon Highway Patrol, who fired those first shots.

Robert LaVoy Finicum led a small band of protesters, including Cliven Bundy's sons, Ryan and Ammon, American Patriots, who understood that the federal government and the Bureau of Land Management were consistently and constantly acquiring or simply taking land unconstitutionally, from farmers and ranchers across America. These men and women were standing firm for property rights under Our Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution, when they occupied Malheur, near Burns, Oregon, on January 2,  2016 and began a stand-off with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, that lasted forty-one days, detailed by Les Zaitz in The Oregonian, that lasted forty-one days.


Since they had left the refuge before without incident, they expected this day, on January 26, 2016, to be no different. Imagine their shock, when the ambush and shooting occurred soon after LaVoy, Ryan and Ammon Bundy and Shawna Cox and Victoria Sharp, along with several others, started on their way to meet peacefully with Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer in John Day County. They had viewed their act of civil disobedience as a simple demonstration, much less severe and dangerous than other protests generated by Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street, who were destroying entire cities without any real consequence from law enforcement.

After successfully evading the first road block, LaVoy told his friends, "Better understand how this thing is going to end. I'm going to be laying down on the ground with my blood on the street, or I'm going to see the sheriff. We got people en route."


Posted by OPB
Published on Mar 8, 2016


According to Robert Cary, Astarita's lawyer, it was at this point that one Oregon State Patrolman radioed ahead to "Officer 1" and stated, "We're going to have to shoot LaVoy Finicum."

At the second roadblock, shots rained down on LaVoy's truck before he ever stopped, forcing him to plow into a snow bank, allegedly just narrowly missing an FBI agent. And, as he jumped from the truck, to draw fire from his friends, with his hands raised above his head, two shots rang out, one shattering the driver's side passenger window and striking Ryan Bundy in the shoulder. 


In Shawna Cox's video of the ambush, one hears the police telling him to "Get down" and LaVoy yelling, "You're gonna have to shoot me". Cox is heard asking, "Damn it, are they shooting him? ... You assholes."


Jeanette Finicum


The April 24th 2018 amendment (see page 51, number 269) to Jeanette Finicum's current lawsuit for the wrongful death of her husband speaks volumes: 


"The FBI, OSP and other defendants have publicly defended the deliberate ambush and murder of LaVoy on January 26, 2016, by alleging that after he exited the vehicle, and after he had been shot with at least five lethal rounds (as well as unknown number of non-lethal rounds), and after he repeatedly placed his hands on top of his head in a surrender position; that he appeared to be reaching into his jacket."

One of the most damning points within Mrs. Finicum's complaint, found on page 33, highlights the fact that at the time of the so-called "traffic stop", there was still no sworn affidavit or probable cause statement or indictment against LaVoy or any of his friends accompanying him. Neither was there any arrest warrant for anyone involved.

Witnesses are on record noting that Astarita's face was contorted after the shooting, and he was loud and "so amped up" that a supervisor had to calm him down. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Sussman also noted: "Only one guy (Astarita) stood in just the right spot. ... Only one guy aimed right at Robert 'LaVoy' Finicum's pickup [and] fired two shots in rapid succession."

Astarita's trial follows a growing resentment among American patriots for a federal bureaucracy that is out of control, even to the point of committing sedition, possibly treason, against a sitting U.S. president. It also doesn't help that the FBI has a long history of arbitrary, tyrannical actions, detailed by Leah Sottile, such as witnessed in 1992, when an FBI team descended on Ruby Ridge and the home of Randy Weaver, a U.S. Army Special Forces Veteran, and a sniper murdered Vicki Weaver, as she stood in the cabin doorway holding the couple's baby.

Just before stepping from LaVoy's truck, hands raised, Ryan Payne looked out and saw LaVoy lying in the snow. He turned towards Shawna Cox and Victoria Sharp and said, "LaVoy is dead."

It doesn't really matter, in the end, whose bullets killed LaVoy, because it shouldn't have ended like this anyway. LaVoy had time and again stated a desire to make sure that the stand-off ended peacefully, and up until the day of the ambush, there wasn't any reason to believe that it wouldn't, since LaVoy had been in constant contact with Sheriff Glenn Palmer, who was quite sympathetic to the cowboy's cause. These men weren't "anti-government"; they were anti-tyranny.

During the 2016 trial that acquitted Ammon Bundy and six other defendants, the FBI and Oregon Highway Patrol both testified they could not have identified specific legal reasons for the stop. This can only mean that had law enforcement not escalated the situation, LaVoy Finicum would have also been acquitted and alive and well at home with his family.

Robert Lavoy Finicum was willing to die for his ideas, the Constitution and freedom, and as we rise to a new sun each day, we must work in this America, the home of the brave and the land of the free, to ensure that not any future Democrat led administration, or any administration, can ever target conservative protests in such an egregious manner, impeding liberty each step of the way and executing us at will. The Finicum's fight to hold the federal government accountable for its arrogant lawlessness, dishonesty and violence is America's fight.

LaVoy was a good man, gunned down in cold blood. And whether or not any degree of justice comes out of this trial, God's accounting awaits each of us one day. I pray to God justice be served and the Finicum Family finds peace of mind and heart.

By Justin O. Smith
______________________
Edited by John R. Houk
Text embraced by brackets and source links are by the Editor.

© Justin O. Smith



Friday, June 30, 2017

Evidence of FBI Corruption


John R. Houk
© June 30, 2017

Here is a reprise of Oregon Malheur National Wildlife Refuge standoff instigated by the unjust re-sentencing of Dwight and Steven Hammond after they had already served time for a conviction that should never have happened. A bunch of ranchers from all over the Western U.S. came as a protest militia against the unjust actions of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). There were a few leaders of this rancher militia but the few headlines that made into the MSM placed Ammon Bundy and his brother Ryan as the faces of BLM resistance. Ammon and Ryan were fresh off a successful standoff with their father Cliven Bundy in Nevada.

Here’s a rehash of the Hammonds’ BLM difficulties:

According to an October 7, 2015 press release from the Obama Department of Justice, Dwight Lincoln Hammond, Jr., 73, and his son, Steven Dwight Hammond, 46, both residents of Diamond, Oregon in Harney County, were sentenced to five years in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken for arsons they committed on federal lands. 
The men were charged nearly a decade after the first fire and five years after the second.

Oregon Live reports on the fires:

The Hammonds' run-ins with the government began in 1999, when Steven Hammond started a fire that escaped onto U.S. Bureau of Land Management territory. The intent of the fire was to burn off juniper and sagebrush that hindered the growth of grass for their cattle.

BLM employees reminded Steven Hammond that although his family leased public land for grazing, he couldn't burn it without a permit. But in September 2001, the Hammonds started another fire. This one ran off their property on Steens Mountain, consumed 139 acres of public land and took the acreage out of production for two growing seasons, according to court papers.

Then in August 2006, lightning sparked several fires near the spot where the Hammonds grew their winter feed. Steven Hammond set a back-burn to thwart the advancing flames, and it burned across about an acre of public land, according to federal court records.


First, both men were sentenced in 2012 by now-retired U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan, following the trial. Steven received one year and a day in prison for setting fires in 2001 and 2006. Dwight got 3 months for his 2001 involvement. Hogan did not believe the men had malicious intent to be labeled as terrorists under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, even though he sentenced them to jail for the time he did.


Both men served their sentences and were released. Now, the feds have appealed those sentences and want the mandatory minimum five-year sentence imposed on the men, and so they appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who agreed with the feds that the judge ruled illegally. However, now they are wanting to label the Hammonds as terrorists under the 1996 law in order to put them back in jail.

... READ ENTIRETY (Bigger Than Bundy Ranch: Militia put on Level 2 Alert to Defend Oregon Ranchers against Tyrannical Feds Who Label Them Terrorists; By TIM BROWN; Freedom Outpost; 11/24/17)

NOW, after this rehash and couple it with the Obama Leftist corrupt regime which pushed much of the BLM land grabbing and rancher persecution; there are HUGE indications that the FBI has become so inculcated with Obama’s Leftist swamp, that they are severely a part of the problem to devastate the property rights of Ranchers.  

Can you say, Communist redistribution in favor of State management?



FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita Court Sketch 6/28/17 Photo: Deborah Marble at KGW.com

At least one FBI Agent (so far) is under criminal prosecution for intimidation and manipulating evidence. Below is the story.

JRH 6/30/17
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SHERIFF BACKS CLAIMS OF FBI-LAWBREAKING IN OREGON STANDOFF
Documentary-makers release more evidence that raises questions

June 29, 2017




In a stunning development a year after the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, where two-dozen armed supporters gathered to protest the courts’ extension of sentences for two ranchers, a sheriff has backed claims of FBI misbehavior.

The declaration came from Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson just as FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita was pleading not guilty to three counts of making false statements and two counts of obstruction of justice in federal court in Portland, Oregon.

The FBI agent was accused of firing at the protesters, then picking up shell casings to conceal that fact and lying to investigators.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon said Astarita falsely stated he had not fired his weapon during the attempted arrest of protester LaVoy Finicum, who was shot dead by another officer during the incident, “when he knew he had in fact fired his weapon.”

“Astarita also knowingly engaged in misleading conduct toward Oregon State Police officers by failing to disclose that he had fired two rounds during the attempted arrest,” the statement said.

Nelson said, as the Washington Times reported, that the actions by “multiple members of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team” had “damaged the integrity of the entire law enforcement profession, which makes me both disappointed and angry.”


Nelson said he told Justice Department and FBI officials, including now-acting Director Andrew McCabe, over a year ago about “possible criminal conduct” by some involved FBI Hostage Rescue Team agents.

And while the case against Astarita is in court, new evidence also is arising from the makers of an acclaimed documentary about the incident.

WND reported earlier on the armed standoff that has been variously described by opponents as “militia terrorism” and by defenders as rebellion against government tyranny.

The 41-day standoff ended in mass arrests after law enforcement fatally shot one of the occupiers.

The documentary is “American Standoff,” and while it aired previously on DirecTV, it can now be viewed in its entirety at this website. Among the people interviewed in the documentary is best-selling author and WND Vice President David Kupelian.

The “American Standoff” story starts with Dwight and Steven Hammond, Oregon ranchers who were controversially convicted and sentenced for setting a controlled land-management fire on their property that went out of control onto federal land. But after they served their sentences and were released, a judge – at a federal prosecutor’s insistence – ordered them back into court, where they were sentenced to further time in prison under an anti-terrorism law, even though there was no evidence presented that the ranchers had planned or engaged in terrorism in any way.

Sympathetic ranchers and others – encouraged by the federal government’s stand-down from a previous armed confrontation in Nevada two years earlier on the land of rancher Cliven Bundy – protested the new injustice and ended up staging an armed occupation of the refuge.

They succeeded in keeping federal officers at bay until they were finally taken into custody when police staged a highly dangerous highway stop of vehicles carrying the protesters and shot two men.

Ryan Bundy, one of Cliven Bundy’s sons, was injured, while LaVoy Finicum was killed.

Eventually, seven of the others who were arrested were acquitted of federal charges related to the standoff. The feds even dismissed charges against a self-described independent broadcaster, Peter Santilli, who documented the occupation near Burns, Oregon, but was accused by prosecutors of being part of the protest group.

However, one of the FBI agents was charged with serious infractions of the law for the final confrontation. So far, Astarita is the only FBI agent to be indicted.

In addition to the feature-length “American Standoff” documentary, director Josh Turnbow and his film-making crew have now produced a series of “Aftermath” short video segments that have been posted online.

In the first, Jeanette Finicum, the widow of LaVoy Finicum, explains how the government, after killing her husband, also canceled the lease she needed to continue her family’s ranching operation.

She said she has lawyers fighting to restore the lease.

And she said a wrongful death case is inevitable against the government after a certain legal time period passes.

She insists her husband had his hands in the air and was surrendering but “was murdered.”

“He was mowed down in cold blood.”

Then, the video explains, the federal agents were “caught on camera, picking up casings before the forensic team arrived at the site of the shooting.”

Also, the video shows, Finicum’s gun, which he reportedly had been reaching for, wasn’t found for eight hours after the shooting.

“How many people tended to his body without finding it?” the video asks.

See the footage of the first segment:


Posted by Audience Network
Published on Jun 8, 2017

American Standoff: Aftermath is a new short form series that delves deeper into the personal lives of the characters and key issues surrounding the 2016 Malheur Standoff.

Episode 1: Finicum

After the death of Lavoy Finicum, the BLM cancelled the Finicum Ranch Grazing Permit. More than a year later, Lavoy's widow Jeanette is still trying to get the permit reinstated.

Watch the next episode here: [Blog Editor: Original link not functional as of 6/30/17. The link after the bracket works.]  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2TBRsf-4cM

Audience Facebook: http://bit.ly/AudienceNetworkFacebook
Audience Twitter: http://bit.ly/AudienceTwitter
Audience Instagram: http://bit.ly/AudienceInstagram


Turnbow told WND the “Aftermath” series continues the stories of people affected by the standoff.


In addition to conducting in-depth interviews with nearly everyone involved on all sides of the conflict, Turnbow said he tapped WND’s managing editor, David Kupelian, to offer a journalist’s perspective and analysis.

“I think Josh Turnbow did a terrific job in ‘American Standoff,'” said Kupelian, “not just in fairly and sensitively presenting all sides of a complex and troubling situation, but in telling a riveting, deeply thought-provoking true story about today’s America.”

Kupelian said the documentary “captures the classic modus operandi of an oppressive government: Perpetrate injustice, provoking widespread public outrage, which always includes a small number of people who seriously overreact and, however well-meaning, do something illegal or irresponsible – and then portray them as the real problem, or in this case as ‘criminals’ and ‘terrorists.'”

He said the main provocation in the story was “convicting two Oregon cattle ranchers, a father and son team whose controlled burn on their own property had gotten out of control and migrated onto federal land, with arson under an anti-terrorism statute that mandates a minimum five-year prison sentence.”

“Even the presiding judge said such a severe and unjust sentence would ‘shock the conscience.’ Well, it did shock the conscience of a lot of other ranchers – and the Malheur standoff was the result,” he said.


Turnbow said he would like to find out what really happened and consider what the outcome should have been, especially with regard to the still-imprisoned ranchers serving a five-year “terrorism” sentence.

“We should be talking about it,” Turnbow says.

The larger issue at hand – federal control over land in the American West – continues to loom large.

The federal government is the largest landowner in the Rocky Mountain and Western states, owning contiguous parcels of millions of acres.

Conflicts between ranchers, who in some instances have owned and worked their land for generations, and a federal government seemingly always hungry for more, are common.

President Trump’s recent executive order to review the possibility of shrinking the boundaries of federal monuments could help defuse the longstanding tensions between America’s ranchers and the government.

See the trailer for “American Standoff”:
[Blog Editor: I am not sure if this is the same trailer WNDTV uses but it is about the same length on Youtube.]


Posted by Audience Network
Published on Apr 25, 2017

A story as tragic and incredible as the West itself, AUDIENCE Network presents the AT&T original documentary American Standoff which tells the story of the armed takeover of Oregon’s Malheur Wildlife Refuge and its violent conclusion. Don’t miss the premiere on 5/4 at 8PM!

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Evidence of FBI Corruption
John R. Houk
© June 30, 2017
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SHERIFF BACKS CLAIMS OF FBI-LAWBREAKING IN OREGON STANDOFF


© Copyright 1997-2017. All Rights Reserved. WND.com.

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

One Quiet Man's Fight for Freedom


It was about a year ago that LaVoy Finicum was shot to death by Federal and Oregon State law enforcement UNJUSTLY. Justin reminds us that government tyranny is very possible in America – especially in an America that has a Dem Party Administration that has consistently lied to Americans for EIGHT YEARS.

JRH 1/24/17
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One Quiet Man's Fight for Freedom

By Justin O. Smith
Sent 1/23/2017 7:38 AM

"Destroyers are they who lay snares for many, and call it the state ... " -- Nietzsche

Americans should pause and take some time to recall and celebrate the life of Robert LaVoy Finicum, an American patriot, who loved his family, God and country. He placed his life on the line in defense of all Americans' right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness', joining the ranks of thousands of other ranchers who have been fighting the overreaches of the federal government and the tyranny of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the past forty years. Robert LaVoy Finicum died on January 26th, 2016, one day before his 55th birthday, defending the U.S. Constitution and this America he loved so well.

By all accounts, LaVoy Finicum was "a quiet man who worked his to-do list from sun-up to sundown" (The Oregonian) and had a "light reading" list that included many history books, the U.S. Constitution and Alexis de Tocqueville's 'Democracy in America'. He also thoroughly enjoyed his big family - his wife and eleven children - and their evening discussions on the Scriptures, the Constitution and the Founding Fathers' ideas on freedom.

Although Finicum had generally viewed his interaction with the BLM to be "very good" over the years, he became active in opposing them in 2014, after the BLM fined him $12,000 and claimed his cattle had grazed on federal lands past his allotted permit time. He was also heavily influenced by his own research into the BLM and the high-handed tactics he witnessed the BLM employ against the Bundy family in 2014.

Finicum rode with Cliven and Ammon Bundy on their Nevada Ranch in April of 2014, along with hundreds of other supporters, in order to reinforce the fact that Bundy's grazing and water rights, documented in an 1878 title, predated any BLM claims and had to be honored by the BLM. And when the BLM moved along Interstate 15 to confiscate Bundy's cattle on April 5th, Finicum, the Bundy family members and well-armed supporters stopped them cold where they stood; this would become a sore-point for the FBI that carried over to the Malheur Wildlife Reserve occupation in 2016 and the stand-off near Burns, Oregon.

After the Bundy Ranch Stand-Off, LaVoy Finicum said: "I had to do a lot of soul searching. I realized that Cliven Bundy was standing on a very strong constitutional principle, and yet, here I was continuing to pay a grazing fee to the BLM."

Finicum and the Bundy clan understood that the Enclave Clause [Thoughts from 20142016] (Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution) did not allow government bureaucrats to act like kings and ignore the 9th and 10th Amendments, and it did not authorize the BLM to arbitrarily seize the water rights, cattle and property of ranchers and arrogantly nullify 200 years of constitutional history. They understood, much like the U.S. Supreme Court (New York v. U.S.), that the Constitution is not a tool to protect the sovereignty of the State or for the benefit of government officials, but rather, the Constitution secures all Americans' liberties through the diffusion of sovereign power.

However, the BLM sees things differently. Many cases spanning the years can be found, that are similar to Raymond Yowell's experience. The BLM garnished the $200 Social Security check of this former chief of the Shoshone Indian Tribe and seized 132 head of his cattle in 2002, for grazing "unlawfully" on government lands. The BLM sold Yowell's cattle at auction and pocketed the money.

Between 2006 and 2012, the BLM had intimidated and finally charged Steven and Dwight Hammond with nine federal counts of arson for setting backfires on their own lands that supposedly spread to federal land. The Hammonds were subsequently imprisoned, released and then sent back to prison, even though the facts illuminated that some of those out-of-control backfires actually originated with BLM employees, in an attempt to stop several lightning strike fires such as the Granddad fire that burned 46,000 acres.

Politics played heavily in the cases regarding Steven and Dwight Hammond, because the BLM wanted the Hammond ranch. Gold mining companies like Calico Resource USA out of Vancouver, Canada and uranium mining concerns like Australian owned Oregon Energy LLC had their eyes on the area, and the BLM was hoping to profit and grow more powerful through the General Mining Law of 1872.

All the great ideas and principles that shaped America went with LaVoy Finicum, as he and many other American Patriots occupied Oregon's Malheur (French for "misfortune" or "tragedy") National Wildlife Refuge, about 30 miles from Burns, Oregon, in order to force the return of 188,000 acres to local control and the release of the Hammond brothers from prison. They acted through peaceful, political protest, even though they were armed to ensure the security of their protest, and they advocated for property and states' rights, as they took a hard stand against federal ownership of 250 million acres in America and years of oppression by the BLM and several other government agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency.

Twenty-five days into the protest, Robert LaVoy Finicum, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, Shawna Cox, Ryan Payne and Victoria Sharp headed to John Day, Oregon for a "singing" and a meeting with Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer to discuss their demands, explain their views to local people and seek a peaceful end to the stand-off. But they were ambushed along the way by the Oregon State Patrol and the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, which used combat-grade operation protocols rather than "civilian" deadly force standards, firing once without warning at the initial stop, according to many witnesses, and numerous times at the second roadblock using concussion and live rounds.

Does this remind anyone else of Ruby Ridge and the murders of Randy Weaver's wife and son by the FBI?

If the federal authorities had been serious about desiring a peaceful resolution to this conflict, they could have coordinated with Sheriff Palmer to arrest Finicum, if just cause existed for an arrest (they knew Finicum's destination). Instead they chose to shoot him numerous times and refuse him medical attention from Victoria Sharp, a trained EMT and his friend, as he lay on the snowy ground dying. They murdered LaVoy on a lonely, desolate stretch of Highway 395.

If the FBI had negotiated LaVoy Finicum's peaceful surrender, as they certainly could have, he would simply have been taken into custody and released after his acquittal by a jury, just in the same manner that a jury acquitted his so-called "co-conspirators" in October 2016, including Ammon Bundy and a friend and activist, Shawna Cox. And, it should alarm everyone that the HRT agents initially concealed the fact they had fired their weapons during the stop.

Upon her release, Shawna Cox made a plea before a mass of TV cameras and supporters, imploring: "We have to be vigilant people. Wake up America, and help us restore the Constitution. Don't sleep with your head in the sand.

Isn't it odd that FBI agents, who are sworn to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution -- lawyers all -- regularly side with government imposed tyranny against U.S. citizens?

Arianna Finicum Brown, LaVoy's 27 year old daughter, stated shortly after his death: "My Dad was such a good man, through and through. He would never want to hurt somebody, but he does believe in defending freedom and he knew the risks involved.

During LaVoy's funeral, his brother, Guy Finicum remarked on LaVoy's deep faith in God, adding: "He has absolute confidence that he will be with his family again. He believes that as much as he believes the sun will rise. And that's what gave him the ability to do what he did. He always looked at a higher goal."

When any government, including ours, puts forth its strength on the side of injustice and murders fine men like LaVoy Finicum, it reveals itself as a mere brute force, and it becomes apparent more than ever that tyranny rules. And other patriots are served warning to desist their opposition or meet the same fate.

And what are Americans to think of a government to which all the truly brave and just men in the land are enemies, standing between it and those whom it oppresses?

Robert LaVoy Finicum did not recognize unjust human laws, and he persistently stood for the dignity of human nature, knowing himself for a man, the equal of any government. He regularly fought against established injustices and the hypocrites of bureaucracies who seemed to ask, "Why do you assault us". And LaVoy's death -- the death of an American hero -- was like the planting of a good seed, and it is giving rise to a new crop of American heroes.

By Justin O. Smith
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Youtube video added by Blog Editor:


Posted by The Oregonian
Published on Mar 8, 2016

In a video shown at a Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office press conference today, the aerial FBI video of the LaVoy Finicum shooting has been synced with a cellphone video Shawna Cox recorded from within Finicum’s truck.

The rest is The Oregonian subscription & social media information
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Edited by John R. Houk
All source links are by the Editor and all text enclosed by brackets are by the Editor.

© Justin O. Smith