A white jury determines that the law doesn’t apply to white protestors

[struggle4progress]

Melissa Batchelor Warnke

Remember that group of militants that staged an armed standoff in Oregon last winter? You know, the one where they occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for six weeks, vowing that if the government were to raid the occupation it would risk a "conflagration so great, it cannot be stopped, leading to a bloody, brutal civil war”? ...

... a group of anti-federalist protestors showed up at Malheur to demonstrate their fury at the Hammonds’ sentencing. They brought dozens of guns, 15,000 rounds of ammunition, and occupied the offices of federal workers for 41 days. Ammond and Ryan Bundy, the group’s leaders, are extremist Mormons with messiah complexes; one refers to himself as Captain Moroni, an anti-government leader associated with the “title of liberty” in the Book of Mormon ...

... I get it: I can’t understand why I, a white person, can’t just go around setting fire to 100 acres of your land, so long as I believe it should actually be my land. And if, for God knows what reason, I received the minimum punishment under the law for burning all your stuff down, I sure as hell hope that dozens of my friends would show up with guns and stage an illegal occupation for five weeks. And if my friends got brought to court for staging that occupation, I sure as hell would hope they get off with no convictions, as the six protestors charged did last night. Freedom, baby. Well, freedom for us. Law and order for “them” ...

In the course of this election season, a number of commentators and analysts have made the point that when you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. When the white men who got in trouble for setting government property on fire, it was their oppression. When those white men’s white supporters set their base in the office of one of the refuge’s only female employees, it was their right. And when the white leaders of this illegal armed occupation movement were found “not guilty” by an all-white jury last night, it was our confirmation that privileged treatment in the eyes of the law is white America’s enduring inheritance.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-malheur-bundy-occupation-acquittal-20161028-story.html

[Cattledog]

1. OJ verdict in reverse.

[raging moderate]

2. Meanwhile, the Dakota Access pipeline protesters are treated like criminals.

For demanding that OUR US government honor its treaty obligations.

[awoke_in_2003]

4. Yep, and they are on their land...

it was sold without being ceded by the tribe- in other words, stolen, like we did to most of their land.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

3. A different jury, even if all white, would have likely resulted in a different outcome.

Those particular jurors were clearly sympathetic to those criminals. I don't care if prosecutors supposedly overreached with severe charges. The defendants were still guilty of some of the lesser charges, such as having firearms in a federal facility.

It's like the defense had total reign over jury selection! It sure seems that way to me.

Side story:
I was called for petit jury duty and witnessed all school teachers get dismissed by the defense attorney because they allegedly had a knack for pronouncing guilt without sufficient evidence because they make similar quick decisions in their classrooms on a regular basis. Huh?
The prosecuting attorney later asked everyone with degrees or careers in mathematics, science or engineering to raise their hands. I was among them, and he dismissed us because we supposedly couldn't "understand" proof beyond a reasonable doubt, demanding too much evidence for prosecution. Again... huh?

[awoke_in_2003]

5. Prosecutors worth a hill of beans...

would have resulted in a different outcome, too. This was a Mickey Mouse prosecution. You have to worry about the big players, like pot smokers and FIFA officials. The DOJ is a joke.