Libertarian Commentary #16-04D 30 January 2016 by Nathan Barton

Blood has now been shed in the Mahlour Standoff, this week. Freedom’s Phoenix, published a personal account from Stewart Rhodes (Oathkeepers) on the situation and people involved in the FBI killing of a rancher, Lavoy Finicum. The Rhodes article mostly talked about the fate of many in the occupation of the FWS building who left, some of whom were lied to by the FBI and are now in government custody.

It was reported by mainstream media news on Thursday that Lavoy had been reaching into a pocket in which the FBI claimed to have found a loaded pistol.

It is clear that in the eyes of most people, the occupation has failed and all who participated are enemies of the state, traitors, and criminals. Although with seemingly less bloodshed and destruction than Ruby Ridge and Waco, it has resulted in violence and death. And with little or no indication of any good results: certainly no change in the policies which the occupiers claim to have been protesting against.

For those interested in the FBI’s killing of an Arizona rancher, Scott has shared some links that I in turn want to share. But I think this picture sums up the situation. There are many reasons to believe that there was NO moral justification, NO legal justification, for the FBI to shoot the Rancher. May Mr Finicum rest in peace.

The Seattle Times makes a contrary claim. As Scott pointed out, “The FBI said a loaded handgun was found in the pocket.” Was it a “drop gun?” We know that is a common tactic of thugs on their beat.

The terms are disgusting, and meant to be. Fry, Burn, Incinerate and the Whorebegone Statist Police, and the events seem to prove the reason for such name calling, as can be seen in sites on-line. Wikipedia on the OSP and of course the OSP website itself. Many people believe that the FBI assassinated him with malice aforethought, then lied about his reaching for a gun to excuse their perfidy.

As far as the dead man, where is the outcry that followed the deaths of people like Trevon Martin or others?

(For a better understanding of the man, Scott shared these, as well. Like him, I’ve not had a chance to view them yet: my bandwidth has been very limited this week.

Lavoy Finicum – Pamela Romney Openshaw – Property Rights.mp3, NS Lavoy Finicum Pam Openshaw Standing for freedom in the face of tyranny.mp3. Both of these may help you understand this man better.)

We will probably never know the truth, unless some one of the FBI defects and tells it.

Given this latest police killing (yes, Virginia, the FBI is DEFINITELY a “police force” and indeed part of a military occupation of the Fifty States), these next two stories from this week and earlier in the month are worth commenting on.

CNS News reports that a think tank, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, study says that not only are a higher percentage of whites and Hispanics killed by police, the greater threat to blacks comes from violent criminals within their own communities. “The evidence does not support the conclusion that American police are waging a racist war against blacks,” Manhattan senior fellow Heather Mac Donald writes. Well, this makes sense, the police are too busy waging a war on freedom to concentrate on mere racism. But the study does NOT point out that many of the black-on-black deaths and injuries are a direct result of the war on some drugs, waged as part of the war on freedom, and therefore still can be attributed to police, indirectly.

Back on the 19th, the WaPo had this whinging article about how cops in Danville are in danger, and the two cops killed on Sunday the 17th (one in Utah) were the first killed in 2016, and weeks before the first were killed in 2015. But the WaPo cannot be bothered to report that 2016 is well on track to follow 2015 in averaging more than 3 civilians killed by cops EACH day. I could not find a good count yet, but the Oregon rancher is almost certainly just one of nearly 100 killed in 2016 by cops so far: white, red, black, brown and yellow.

In related news this week, CNS News reported that a New York court has upheld a regulatory agency decision that farmers in their state who refused to host a “same-sex marriage” event for two women have to pay $13,000 in fines and implement special “re-education” training that forces the farmers to further violate their consciences and moral beliefs. Why is this related? Because government is making examples of those who do wrong in the government’s eyes in order to terrorize people into slavish obedience, and because the mainstream media presents those objectors and protesters and occupiers not just as people who break the law, but as evil people who must be forced into doing whatever government demands. Evil people whom cops may kill without question. It is only a matter of time before cops and other state thugs show up to arrest someone for exercising their religious liberty. Refusing to compromise for something like “same-sex marriage,” they will be gunned down by cops and blamed for their own deaths. “IF they had just obeyed the law and rented their place/stopped preaching against homosexuality/given up their child to the state…”

Enough is enough. But we don’t, as a people, as Fifty States, understand that yet.