Authorities plan to cut off power to militia at occupied Oregon refuge

[anigbrowl]

98. Perhaps not as much as you think

I recall there was a Black Lives Matter group camped out outside a Dearborn, MI police station a few weeks ago to protest a police shooting or a pattern of them. Technically they were also on public land (muni rather than federal) but the police respected their protest. As I recall some local racists did not respect it, and rolled up and shot at the protesters, injuring one or two. IIRC the encampment folded, partly due to cold weather, but they are still having protest marches about the issue with no problems.

Let's keep a sense of perspective - these yahoos n Oregon are thumbing their nose at the federal government, but they don't seem to be presenting any sort of threat to anyone's safety so basically they're just trespassing. At worst it's a petty misdemeanor, notwithstanding their political views: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/25/11.411

If they were to try to occupy a federal building in a town it would likely provoke a very different response. Considering that they're in the middle of nowhere though, the impact on public safety is negligible and treating them as a low priority is probably the most effective response. The people demanding that we bring the full might of the state down to crush them are delusional; to do so would only validate an oppressive response in other contexts. Those are are drawing comparisons with other historical conflicts to argue that these people are being coddled are mistaken at best and intellectually dishonest at worst.

For example, consider the Indian occupation of Alcatraz in 1969; that was eventually forcibly ended by the government, but only after the occupation ahd been going on for 19 months and after the majority of the protestors had given up and left of their own accord: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Alcatraz