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A MEMBER OF an armed anti-government group who was killed in a traffic stop in Oregon vowed a few weeks ago that he would die before spending his life behind bars.
LaVoy Finicum, a 55-year-old rancher from Cain Beds, Arizona, died last night after law enforcement officers initiated the stop near the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Finicum was a leader of the armed group that took over the Oregon refuge on 2 January to oppose federal land restrictions and object to the prison sentences of two local ranchers convicted of setting fires.
He and other occupiers were heading to a community meeting in the town of John Day, about 70 miles north of Burns.
It’s unclear what happened in the moments before his death. Authorities said shots were fired but have declined to say how many, or if Finicum or any of the other activists exchanged gunfire with officers.
Eight occupiers were arrested, including group leader Ammon Bundy.
On Wednesday, Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward said the traffic stop initiated on a stretch of road away from populated areas was a tactical decision that officials hoped would bring a peaceful end to the standoff.
Finicum was a prominent presence at the refuge and frequently talked with reporters. His affable but passionate demeanor made him a popular subject for on-camera interviews.
Finicum seemed to have made up his mind about how his role in the occupation was likely to end — with his death.
Just a few days into the occupation, he came barreling to the refuge entrance in a federal truck.
Rifle in hand, Finicum sat in the middle of the driveway, telling the reporters gathered around him that he learned there was a warrant for his arrest and he wanted to make it easy for federal agents to find him.
At the time, he said he didn’t know what the warrant charged him with, but he believed agents would try to arrest him soon.
I don’t think it really matters. There’s enough things they could make a warrant for us, I believe.
I have grown up loving the fresh air. I love the elements. And this is where I’m going to breathe my last breath…
I’m not going to spend my last days in a cell. This world is too beautiful to spend it in a cell.
He then gave a message to his family:
And kids, if I don’t come, you know I love you and I’m proud of every damn one of you.
The rancher was media-savvy and tried to popularise and monetise his political beliefs on his website, One Cowboy’s Stand for Freedom.
He used the site to sell his book, a 252-page paperback titled “Only by Blood and Suffering,” as well as T-shirts, bumper stickers and posters emblazoned with slogans like “Let Freedom Ring” and “Defend the Constitution Original Intent.”
He described himself as a longtime friend of Cliven Bundy, and he participated in the standoff with federal authorities over grazing fees at the elder Bundy’s Nevada ranch in 2014.
Finicum and his wife, Jeanette, raised dozens of foster children, though social workers removed the kids from the couple’s home a few days after the occupation began.
Finicum said the foster kids were the family’s main source of income.
Catholic Charities paid the family more than $115,000 in 2009 (€105,000) to foster children, according to tax filings.
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That’s the dangerous bit…when they don’t care about dying and would rather go out in a blaze of glory, taking anyone with them.
The dangerous part is he was allowed foster kids and saw them as an income!!! Definitely not an affable character at all
it’s just euthanasia by cop
Bunch of angry old white reactionaries trying to turn back time. The world will be a better place once all the boomers have passed
Because he’s Christian, it’s ok. But if he was Muslim, this would be the latest terrorist attack. Go figure.
No Shane, it wouldn’t be another act of terrorism if they were Muslim. Remember how much the media and police tried to play the latest terror attack in California off as a disgruntled worker shooting up a work event rather than a terror attack?
These were a group of armed morons camping out on federal land well away from innocent civilians. They’d remain armed morons rather than terrorists regardless of race or religion.
Shane, where did anybody say this was okay?
Or alternatively, if he was black it would be ‘police brutality’ and there’d be burning and looting all over Oregon by now….
Hmm Jason silly boy these armed morons were/ are anti govt ….
“The militia, made up of mostly out-of-state anti-government activists, says it wants to establish local control of public lands in Harney County, an idea that some ranchers say they support, even if they don’t agree with the armed takeover of a wildlife refuge.”
and yes it is home grown terrorism
They were an armed militia using force and fear to spread their views.
What part of the classic definition of terrorism is that not fulfilling?
Like Jason they do not like Govt interference ?
A year after armed standoff, Cliven Bundy still star of his own Tea Party-tinged western
His Nevada ranch was the scene a year ago of a showdown over grazing rights with federal agents, who stood down after he was backed by a gun-toting ‘citizen militia’ from across the US. Today he’s yet to pay any fees and says: ‘We might be the freest place on earth’
RIP Cleetus.
Could this be the end of yokel haram?
Live by the gun, die by the gun. He seems to have gotten his wish anyway.
Guns are a poor master.
The Feds should have just called in a drone strike on the whole pack of those tobacco-spittin’ yokels.
Was he seen in video running away from police unarmed ?no he was tooled up .they are all tooled up for their “peaceful “protest ,apples ,oranges ,near ,far away …….
Hey Colin Moron, you’re a moron
Hey jynxeffect, you can’t spell jinx.
He got his wish then.
Brave man.
Guess someone with that sort of conviction scares the hell out of your average Paddy who’s so used to bending over and taking it up the Aras without even a pretence of resistance.
Nut jobs
Have you researched this whole episode or are you just a sheep reading headlines and going with the flow?
Stupid is as stupid does.
Those American Christian ant-government extremists are just as crazy as ISIS.
They think the democratically elected American Government is a “foreign invader”.
They live in the Wild West.
They are living ,breathing Wild West cowboys.
(They prefer Jessie James and Roy Rogers to Barack Obama and ” them-thar” liberals on the East Coast.)
Spend his last days in a cell? Was he expecting a life sentence? Or was he terminally ill?
Ah a good news story, it’s nice to see people get what they want
have your say