Militiamen occupy U.S. national parks building in Oregon

Militiamen occupy U.S. national parks building in Oregon

A group of militiamen on Saturday (January 2, 2016) occupied the headquarters of a national wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon in support of a father and son who are slated to report to prison on Monday (January 3, 2016) on arson charges.

Militia members camped out at the refuge, lighting fires and draping a U.S. flag over the sign for the Malheur National Wildlife refuge building. The building, which is federal property managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was closed for the holiday weekend.

“It is the people’s facility owned by the people and it has been provided for us to come together and unite and making a hard stand against this overreach, this taking of the people’s land resources,” Ammon Bundy said.

Bundy said that while the occupiers, who included his brother Ryan Bundy, were not looking to hurt anyone, they would not rule out violence if police tried to remove them, the Oregonian reported.

The militiamen are angry about the prosecution of father and son Harney County ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who were ordered returned to prison by a federal court which ruled their original sentences were insufficient

The occupation came shortly after a few hundred marchers paraded through Burns, Oregon, about 50 miles (80 km) away in support of the Hammonds. The Hammonds had served time after being convicted in 2012 of setting fires on public land to protect their property from wildfires.

The Bundys are the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. The Bundy family ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada, some 80 miles (130 km) northeast of Las Vegas, was the site of an armed protest against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in April 2014.

The stand-off gained nationwide attention as the agency sought to seize cattle because the elder Bundy refused to pay grazing fees. The federal agents ultimately backed down, citing safety concerns, and gave back hundreds of Bundy cattle which they had rounded up.

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