1995 Village Voice report on Hammonds terrorism- horrifying

[cali]

<snip>

In the early 1990s, Hammond repeatedly transgressed federal environmental laws, trespassed on federal lands and hurled death threats at federal wildlife officials. Little action was taken against Hammond by a timid Clinton administration. Emboldened, Hammond and some of his fellow ranchers continued over the next two decades to flagrantly flout environmental laws and harass federal officials. These activities finally culminated in an act of poaching on Steens Mountain and two arson fires. Hammond and his son were convicted in federal court and sentenced to five years in prison. That conviction sparked the armed takeover of federal buildings now unfolding in Burns. Here is our report from 1995. — JSC

In the high desert of central Oregon, lies Harney County, a site of a long-festering and intense confrontation between federal officials and the militant property rights movement. Here federal Fish and Wildlife Service agents sought to fence off a wetland that had been trampled by a rancher’s cows on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge about thirty miles south of the dust-caked town of Burns.

In an affidavit, Earl M. Kisler, a Fish and Wildlife Service enforcement officer, said that rancher Dwight Hammond had repeatedly threatened refuge officials with violence over an eight year period. On one occasion Hammond told the manager of the federal refuge that “he was going to tear his head off and shit down his neck.”

According to the affidavit, Hammond threated to kill refuge manager Forrest Cameron and assistant manager Dan Walsworth and claimed he was ready to die over a fence line that the refuge wanted to construct to keep his cows out of a marsh and wetland.

<snip>

It was after that fateful gathering, while Cameron himself was 300 miles away in Portland completing the paperwork on Hammond’s arrest, that his family began receiving more threats, including one call threatening to wrap the Camerons’ 12-year-old boy in a shroud of barbed wire and stuff him down a well. Other callers warned Mrs. Cameron that if she couldn’t get along in the cow town, she ought to move out before something “bad” happened to her family. The families of three other refuge employees also received telephone threats after the meeting. Terrified, Mrs. Cameron packed up her four children, one of them confined to a wheelchair, and fled to Bend, more than 100 miles to the west.

Much more
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/05/showdown-in-the-malheur-marshes-the-origins-of-the-armed-occupation-in-burns-oregon/

[Blus4u]

1. Quite a bit of history in the article.

These people are a real class act.


Peace

[sufrommich]

2. We've coddled these assholes out of fear of

another Ruby Ridge showdown and made them crazier and bolder in the process. You shouldn't have to worry about your kids being safe if dad or mom is a wildlife official. Disgusting.

[cali]

4. I'm afraid you're right.

[hatrack]

3. But . . . Freedumb! Patriots! 'Murca! Mah Rahts! Gaw-duh!

[PeoViejo]

5. Ooglies n/t

[angryvet]

6. Malhuer means Bad Odor of smell

there's a lot of that there...and the Hammonds are a big part.

[Marty McGraw]

13. A lot of cities named

after Stinky. Chicago being another one.

http://www.answers.com/Q/How_did_Chicago_get_its_name

[kacekwl]

7. I wonder if 60 Minutes or

anyone will devote a show about the criminal behavior and terror from this patriotic group ? I think everyone should know the real story of this poor mis-treated family. Talk about anti American.

[SHRED]

10. Highly doubtful

[world wide wally]

8. Just assholes with guns

They don't know or care anything about the Constitution beyond the last 9 words of the 2A.

[2naSalit]

9. That's the gist of it.

They think freedom allows them to do whatever they want with impunity regardless of laws or the rights of others because it's all about them and no one else.

[SHRED]

11. Welfare Cowboys

Welfare Ranching: The Subsidized Destruction of the American West
http://www.publiclandsranching.org/book.htm

[LiberalArkie]

12. Forest Service officer gets earful when ticketing state legislator's husband

It is happening everywhere

The U.S. Forest Service responded by certified mail today to my Freedom of Information Act request for information on tickets given to Ted Bentley, husband of Republican state Rep. Mary Bentley, for Forest Service rules violations.

As I reported earlier, a Game and Fish Commission wildlife officer, who accompanied a Forest Service officer who issued two tickets, said that he encountered Mary Bentley at their Perry County home Oct. 18 in looking for her husband. She seemed to attempt to use her position to influence officers. As we reported:

Game and Fish Officer Robert Stout accompanied forest service Officer Hugh Davis to the Bentleys home. According to his report, Rep. Bentley said to them, "...we (officer Davis and I) need to be real careful, that times were tough and money was tight and that they (House) are looking for places to get money for funding and the Game and Fish Commission would be a good place to look."

The Forest Service report doesn't quote Mary Bentley. But it says that Ted Bentley, who once ran unsuccessfully for sheriff in Perry County, wasn't happy. He was "irritated," the report said. He waved his arms around, complained about paying "mother fucking" taxes and at one point reportedly told the officer to "kiss my groin." Neither Mary Bentley's reported remarks nor Bentley's unhappiness dissuaded the officer. He issued Bentley a $200 ticket for riding an ATV on a closed Forest Service road and a $300 ticket for baiting for wildlife on a wildlife management area. Davis had earlier, in response to a report of shooting over a baited area, found a tree stand for shooting, corn scattered on the ground and trees cut to create "shooting lanes" to the baited area. A camera caught a photo of a man later identified as Bentley removing the tree stand, and that led to the visit to the Bentley home.

Snip

Here is a copy of one of the tickets:


http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2015/12/16/forest-service-officer-gets-earful-when-ticketing-state-legislators-husband