After Malheur, patriot groups claim common cause with other protest movements
Ammon Bundy is the leader of the group that occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for a total of 41 days starting Jan. 2, 2016. He is the son of Cliven Bundy, whose 2014 standoff with federal officials in Nevada over $1 million in unpaid grazing fees and penalties made national news. It is his first time in the spotlight as an anti-government protest leader. Thomas Boyd/Staff
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http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/10/after_malheur_patriot_groups_s.html#incart_2box
Supporters call Thursday's acquittal of seven Oregon refuge occupiers a victory for protest movements of all kinds, even if the affinity that patriot groups claim isn't returned by activists of other banners.
The patriot groups voiced sympathy for such diverse potential allies as the Standing Rock Sioux, who are challenging federal land use decisions in North Dakota, and Black Lives Matter activists in Baltimore, who have taken on law enforcement's abuse of authority.
Jon Ritzheimer, a U.S. Marines veteran from Arizona who was part of the core group of occupation organizers, said Thursday's verdict bolsters the free speech rights of those other causes.
"It's going to be good across the board for everyone, even those who disagreed with us or viewed us with contempt," said Ritzheimer, who pleaded guilty earlier this year in the occupation case.
The 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon led to charges against 26 protesters and set off a fierce discussion of protest tactics within the patriot movement.
In the months since, people who were not charged in the Oregon case have tried to build bridges with organizations that might seem surprising for a movement considered politically conservative and mainly white.
Members of the patriot community recently reached out to the Standing Rock Sioux, who are opposed to a federally approved pipeline they say could harm the tribe's water supply. Authorities have arrested 142 members of the Native American coalition that is occupying private land.
"They asked us not to come," Joseph Rice, a leader of the Josephine County Oath Keepers, a patriot movement group, said of activists in North Dakota. "They want no weapons out there."
In a statement, a spokeswoman said the tribe "supports protectors at the camp who are unarmed, peaceful and engaged in prayer and are there to protect the water and sacred lands."
Tribal leaders near the Malheur refuge strongly opposed the occupiers' actions, which happened on historical native lands. But patriot groups across the country have gravitated to the Standing Rock Sioux.
Scott Woods, a West Virginia militia leader, said he would consider going to North Dakota if a militia called for help and he had permission to come with a gun.
"We are not going to walk into a situation where we can't defend ourselves," Woods said.
But he underscores the common ground: "Clean water is probably important to everyone."
Free speech and guns
Some who opposed the occupation initially as too radical changed their minds. Thursday's verdict helped cement the idea that occupiers' actions got Western land use issues heard.
At least one of the Malheur jurors said Thursday's decision to acquit came because the occupiers' intent was not to keep federal employees from their jobs, as prosecutors alleged, but to send a political message.
Activists said it felt like vindication to people who feel the government too often oversteps.
"The jury determined this group of people had every right to do what they did – freedom of speech and freedom of assembly," said Gary Hunt, who runs the patriot website Outpost of Freedom. "The right to redress their grievances was their motivation. The First Amendment was well-protected."
Ritzheimer, the occupation defendant, went further, saying the Oregon occupation showed armed protesters have a place in the history of civil rights demonstrations.
"We got to sit in the front of the bus a bit longer because we had a gun on our hip," he said.
Jaime Spears, an activist and mother of five from St. Augustine, Florida, agreed.
"I believe this will encourage others to use their voice and take a hard stand," said Spears, who visited the refuge during the occupation and sat in the Portland court for part of the trial.
By "hard stand," Spears said, she means civil disobedience that comes out of a sense of being bullied and unheard despite letters, phone calls and petitions.
She says carrying a gun is not the same as threatening someone with it. But the Oregon occupation did make her wonder whether images of firearms could undermine the cause.
"It made it into something it wasn't," Spears said. "We realized that the mainstream media would never ever ever cover our message as long as we had weapons."
Common cause?
Teressa Raiford of Don't Shoot PDX doubts that Thursday's verdict has anything to do with her First Amendment rights as an African American.
"It wasn't a civil rights case that was won for all Americans," Raiford said. "If we had shown up to occupy a public building with guns, they would have killed us."
Raiford said authorities give people of color far less benefit of the doubt.
"We can't send our kids to parks to play with toy guns," she said. "If a black man puts a gun in the back of his truck to go hunting, the neighbors are probably going to call the police on him."
Don't Shoot protesters held a tense protest adjacent to a gathering of occupation supporters Friday in downtown Portland.
Questions of race continue to dog the patriot movement, even as its members say they want to connect with minority communities who have grievances against the government.
Patriot movement broadcaster Bob Powell said he went to North Dakota, unarmed, but the reception was hostile.
"There's a lot of racism out there," he said. "I almost got my butt kicked even after I explained that I was there to help them tell their story."
Another patriot movement activist was asked to leave after a Confederate flag was spotted in his truck, Powell said.
Ritzheimer, who said he supports the Standing Rock Sioux, said he thinks tribal activists could learn from the Malheur occupation.
"They should file a redress of grievances," he said. "There's more to it than to just stand there in the road."
Deb Jordan says she went to Baltimore's anti-police protests and "stood with the people there." She went with her boyfriend and business partner, Pete Santilli.
She said the response from some in her patriot movement audience was, "We're never going to trust you guys again. You're traitors."
But many came around, she said.
Jordan said Santilli, a self-described journalist whose charges in the Oregon standoff case were later dismissed, made livestreaming a hallmark of contemporary protest.
"We're the wave of the future," Jordan said. "There's no doubt that at Malheur we were winning the information war."
-- Carli Brosseau
503-294-5121; @carlibrosseau