Occupation in Oregon fizzles out, for now
Through Friday evening, it was safe to say that the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon could have turned out worse. A lot worse.
While a handful of people reportedly remained at the refuge as the weekend began, the leaders of an ad hoc group of ranchers and anti-government protesters had been captured Tuesday night during a confrontation with law enforcement officials in which one occupier was killed.
The death of LaVoy Finicum immediately drew uninformed rhetoric from critics of the federal government, the kind of heated talk that occurred during too much of the nearly monthlong standoff. The event careened between looking like an amateurish made-for-TV movie — and something that could have turned into a frenzied shootout, leaving multiple bodies in its wake.
But fortunately this was no Waco, a siege in 1993 by law enforcement of a cult, which eventually left 86 people dead.
On Thursday, the FBI released video that knocked down wild Internet claims by sympathizers of the protesters that Finicum had his hands in the air as he was shot. In reality, the video showed that — while Finicum emerged with his hands up after his vehicle veered into a snow drift during a chase — he then reached toward the inside of his coat.
Bullets flew, and Finicum was killed. An FBI official later said Finicum had a loaded handgun in his coat pocket.
Protest leader Ammon Bundy was among those arrested. And though he had been full of bluster and outrage during the occupation, making demands for the federal government to release public land to “the people,” Bundy by the end of the week fortunately was in a more constructive role.
“My message still remains, ‘Turn yourselves in and do not use physical force,’” Bundy said to the few remaining protesters. That was good advice.
The FBI, the local sheriff and Oregon state officials showed admirable restraint during the long occupation. Instead, they tried to negotiate a peaceful resolution, something Bundy continually resisted.
The occupation of the reserve might embolden other conspiracy-spewing men and women to take up arms against the federal government. That kind of domestic terrorism is a threat to the safety of Americans. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies must try to ensure that legal protests against the laws of this nation don’t turn into regrettably fatal showdowns.
In Oregon, those efforts paid off.
This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Occupation in Oregon fizzles out, for now."