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After Oregon Verdict, Arguments About the Role of Race After Oregon Verdict, Arguments About the Role of Race
(about 5 hours later)
Reaction to a jury’s acquittal Thursday night of armed antigovernment protesters who took over an Oregon wildlife sanctuary last winter was swift, loud and divided. The acquittal Thursday night of armed antigovernment protesters who took over an Oregon wildlife sanctuary prompted a storm of reaction, much of it taking the form of anger at the occupiers, the jury and the legal system.
People outraged by the verdict took to social media to argue that nonwhite defendants would not have been given such benefit of the doubt, contrasting the acquittal to the way law enforcement and the legal system have treated black people, and to Thursday’s arrests of 141 people in North Dakota, many of them from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, who had been blocking a pipeline project. People outraged by the verdict argued that nonwhite defendants would not have been given such benefit of the doubt. They contrasted the acquittal to the way law enforcement and the courts have treated black people, and to Thursday’s arrests of 141 people in North Dakota, many of them from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, who had been blocking a pipeline project.
“Apparently it’s legal in America for heavily armed white terrorists to invade Oregon,” Montel Williams, the former talk show host, wrote on Twitter. “Imagine if some black folk did this.” “Apparently it’s legal in America for heavily armed white terrorists to invade Oregon,” Montel Williams, a former talk show host, wrote on Twitter. “Imagine if some black folk did this.”
David Yarnold, president of the National Audubon Society, released a statement saying, “Wild lands belong to all of us, not the people who hold them at gunpoint.”David Yarnold, president of the National Audubon Society, released a statement saying, “Wild lands belong to all of us, not the people who hold them at gunpoint.”
Equally vehement, if less widespread, comments came from the occupiers’ defenders, who described them as patriots battling a government that improperly controls vast stretches of the West. The occupiers took control of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon for 41 days early this year, opposing both federal ownership of vast tracts of the West, and the limitations the government places on private use of those lands.
“We have a long tradition in this country of people resorting to protest politics, and all protest politics is the result of folks feeling that they are not getting a fair hearing from established institutions,” said R. McGreggor Cawley, a political science professor at the University of Wyoming who has written for decades about land disputes in the West. “This is just the latest of a whole series of land disputes going back to the ‘Sagebrush Rebellion’ of the late ’70s, early ’80s.”
What gave the Malheur occupation a more ominous cast, he said, was that its supporters were not only ranchers and others concerned about land use, but also people tied to right-wing militia movements.
The clash also came during an era of unusually intense protest politics on the left and right, from the Occupy movement to the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.
The acquittals drew cheers that were less widespread, but no less passionate, than the criticisms.
“It gives some hope and some light to the people who are saying the country is lost,” said B.J. Soper, 40, a leader of the Pacific Patriots Network, who spent about 36 days on the fringes of the occupation, saying that he was providing security to the occupiers. The verdict was a sign, he added, that government officials need to listen to everyday people, unless they want to be put “in harm’s way.”
Ammon Bundy, the leader of the occupiers, wrote on Twitter: “The people have to insist that the government is not our master. They are our servants.”Ammon Bundy, the leader of the occupiers, wrote on Twitter: “The people have to insist that the government is not our master. They are our servants.”
The surprise acquittals of all seven defendants in Federal District Court was a blow to government prosecutors, who had argued that Mr. Bundy, his brother Ryan, and five of their followers had used force and threats of violence to occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon. But the jury appeared swayed by the defendants’ contention that they were protesting government overreach and posed no threat to the public. On Thursday night, the defendants’ supporters across several states participated in a toast to the Bundys and the jurors, and posted pictures online — including photos of LaVoy Finicum, the occupier who was killed by the authorities during a confrontation near the end of the standoff.
The surprise acquittals of all seven defendants in Federal District Court was a blow to federal prosecutors, who had argued that Mr. Bundy, his brother Ryan and five of their followers had used force and threats of violence to occupy the wildlife refuge. But the jury appeared swayed by the defendants’ contention that they were just protesting government overreach and posed no threat to the public.
Some people angered by the verdict said it would encourage more armed occupations, but Dr. Cawley said he doubted that. He noted that during the standoff, few people responded to Ammon Bundy’s calls for legions to join him and that the Bundy brothers and their father, Cliven, still face charges in a separate confrontation in 2014, over use of federal land in Nevada, where Cliven Bundy has a ranch.
“I think that’s a much stronger case than the one in Oregon,” he sad. “Had these people in Oregon been convicted, that might have just added more fuel to the fire that they’re not being listened to.”