Oregon's Governor Just Asked the Feds to Get the Militia Off Her Lawn
And called them "armed criminals"
It's now more than two weeks since the armed militia pizza party began at Oregon's Malheur Wildlife Refuge, and the locals are starting to get fed up. While they've called, repeatedly, for the mostly-out-of-state occupiers to get in their Dodge RAMs and drive off into the sunset, they've now turned their focus to the 'federal government's' response. And from local officials all the way up to Oregon's governor, it seems they're not too happy with it.
"To vent a bit, the situation in Burns is [expletive]," a Department of Interior employee based in the area said in an email. "We're forced to move out of our homes and out of our town, while the law enforcement folks take a passive approach. That's great for the FBI, and great for the administration, but how about my family living in temporary lodging in an 'undisclosed location.' How about my kids missing another week, or who knows how long, of school?"
But then the big guns came out. Oregon Governor Kate Brown sent two letters to the Obama administration yesterday, Gawker reports. One was addressed to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey, and the other to President Obama himself.
In the former, Brown refers to the militia as "armed radicals," and challenges the idea that "an occupation in such a remote location does not threaten public safety and does not harm any victims." She lamented the decision to allow the occupiers to move in and out of the facility freely, and continued: "The residents of Hamey County are being intimated [sic] in their own hometown by armed criminals who appear to be seeking occasions for confrontation."
To Mr. Obama, she reiterated there is "harm that is being done to the citizens of Harney County by the occupation," and emphasized "the necessity that this unlawful occupation end peacefully and without further delay from federal law enforcement."
The Obama administration's priority here is abundantly clear: avoid another Waco. But it's also apparent that it's not a strategy that comes without costs.
You can read the letters in full via Gawker.
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