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Burns, Oregon has suffered terribly from the invasion of out-of-state terrorists led by Ammon Bundy. Bundy unleashed an insurrection against the federal government by taking over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in early January. However, the town is the real victim of the crime.
The heavily-armed insurrection attracted a disparate group of so-called “patriots”, many of whom had their own agenda and four of whom continue to occupy the refuge that belongs, not to them, but to the public. Bundy, sitting in a jail cell, has made two pleas to these misguided renegades to leave the refuge — but he is powerless to end the devastation that he began with his own call to lawlessness.
The four holdouts shift in their increasingly outrageous demands as the FBI tries to negotiate their departure. First, they wanted safe passage, with no one leaving in handcuffs. Then they wanted charges from 2014, pending in another state, to be cleared from the record of one of their band, Sean Anderson. Anderson reportedly has an extensive criminal record.
On Friday, the demands escalated. In a live feed, one the four, David Fry said:
“Before we leave, every single one of the people involved in this operation should be pardoned.”
Burns Is Torn Apart As The Ridiculous Demands Increase
As this ridiculousness goes on, Burns continues to be torn apart.
At a town meeting on January 12th, a majority of Burns residents asked the armed cowboys to leave, which they declined to do. For those who support the anti-government sentiment of the insurrectionists — if not their methods — the reaction toward them has been one of hate. Wildlife photographer Jeff Dixson is one of those. He told the New York Times:
“This county is so tore up, it will never be the same — ever. There’s a lot of people that have told me they ain’t never going to talk to me again.”
“This county is so tore up, it will never be the same — ever. There’s a lot of people that have told me they ain’t never going to talk to me again.”
