Comments

1
Meh, this is exactly what happened years ago when a bunch of Occupy Flunkies held a protest at the Washington Mutual bank on Broadway. Clearly they were trespassing, but the jury couldn't convict them.
2
@1, Yeah, but the Occupy protestors weren't armed to the teeth threatening to shoot the bank employees. If these Bundy idiots just chained themselves to the front gates to make a statement then I wouldn't have any problem with them being acquitted. Bringing weapons into the picture should change that equation.
3
White people only go to jail when they shoot lots of white people.

Duh
4
looks like 11/12ths the jury was set on nullification from the start, per the juror that got kicked off. good job, defense lawyers - rivals the OJ jury selection.
5
Well fucking said. A little good old fashioned Marxist analysis has been missing from our discourse, imo.
6
This is right on.
7
I'm not sure how Charles managed to avoid discussing what the jurors themselves said about the verdict:

"One juror in the case defended the acquittals Friday, telling the Oregonian in an email that the verdicts were “a statement regarding the various failures of the prosecution” to prove that there was a conspiracy. This juror also told the publication that the verdicts were “not any form of affirmation of the defense’s various beliefs, actions or aspirations.”

Seemed to me like this was just the ordinary outcome of an adversarial legal system which places a very high burden on the government, in connection with assistant U.S. Attorneys who aren't particularly good advocates.
9
When comparing #7 and #8 I'll go with #7.
#8 is some sort of troll.
10
Yeah, completely random how some defendants get all the luck and get sucky prosecutors. Couldn't even get them for violating federal weapon laws. Must have been the matching camo wear and bandannas. It was just a protest fashion statement.

Yet other people get the worse luck in getting either incompetent or overworked public defenders to go up against hard ass judges and railroading prosecutors. Funny how that works. Then there are those unlucky souls who get killed for doing things like picking up a toy gun in the toy section of a store. Or just being a kid and playing with a toy gun. All abosolutly threatening. I mean that was a BIG kid, right? Guess no gun fashion statement for me if I'm black. The odds are, I'll get a real death bullet instead.

What are the odds the pipeline protesters will get really bad prosecutors and get off too? Or a reconsideration of this pipeline decision? Think they'll get lucky too?

12
What I'm annoyed about is the people complaining that the pipeline protesters got arrested and the Branch Stupidians got acquitted. DID YA FORGET THAT THOSE BASTARDS GOT ARRESTED TOO, AND ONE OF THEM WAS SHOT AND KILLED WHEN HE RESISTED?

@7, 9: Word.
13
@12, well at least he got a chance to resist, try to make a getaway and handle a real gun.

Black people playing with toy guns don't even get the luxury of being arrested. They were just that scary and got bullets instead. No need for arrest or trial by jury to decide if they were threatening or not. Good enough that they were feared and shot to death. Didn't even need to give them a few minutes. Seconds are good enough to decide to kill.

White dudes armed to the teeth, dressed like they are ready for war, hunkering down for a siege evidently aren't scary at all according to this jury. The authority didn't even use tear gas or armored vehicles. They chose to be patient and exercise restraint. Those government workers could have waltzed into work with these harmless pussycats around.

14
Federal land, not state land, Charles. And I suspect the federal prosecutors outsmarted themselves by agreeing to seat an assortment of, um, patriots on the jury for purposes of media optics after achieving their guaranteed convictions. A jury of one's peers, indeed.
15
It's okay to round up some buds and some guns and take over Federal facilities? WHO KNEW! Takes fucking forever to get a reservation at the lodge at Paradise but now problem solved!
16
@13: "well at least he got a chance to resist, try to make a getaway and handle a real gun."
Did your parents have any children who lived?
17
There are members of the Malheur occupation who are actual Neo Nazis. We just let people with swastika tattoos off the hook for a militarized occupation of public land. Let's hope the prosecutors in Nevada are better at their job. If not, expect a whole lot more "uprisings" from white supremacist militia groups and vanity ranchers during Hillary's term in office.
18
@10: The weapons charges required, like all the other charges, a finding that the weapons were carried in furtherance of a conspiracy. If the government can't prove that this was a conspiracy (this is always a difficult task), then pretty much all the charges fail.

I know it probably feels a bit more satisfying to view this as an example of institutional racism or something, but it looks like the DOJ trying to make a conspiracy charge stick when the evidence was lacking. This is how the system is supposed to work, by the way: it's hard to get a conviction for a reason. You should take a look at the jury instructions from this case, it would help you understand what happened.
19
@12
Finicum commited suicide
20
To 18, the evidence wasn't lacking. There was video testimony from interviews with the media and with self recorded YouTube videos where members of the group admitted to planning the takeover. The militants stole and used government vehicles, offices, computers, even renamed the entire refuge with the professionally done sign. They claimed the land no longer belonged to the federal government and was now owned by Harney County.

If the militants had claimed to have taken away federal property, and that the federal government no longer had jurisdiction, how is that not a conspiracy to keep federal workers from doing their job?

Either the prosecution truly blew a slam dunk case, or the jury let the white people walk.
21
@20 Even if everything you mentioned was proven beyond a reasonable doubt, key elements of the conspiracy charge would still be lacking.

I know Charles doesn't like to examine facts, but that doesn't mean the rest of us have to be ignorant. The jury instructions are available below, and I really don't see how anyone can have an opinion on this verdict without having read them:

http://media.oregonlive.com/oregon-stand…

22
@21, reading the jury instructions I still cannot understand a "not guilty" verdict. Vehicles were stolen; trenches (fucking trenches!) were dug across the road using stolen heavy equipment; roads bulldozed with said heavy equipment; archeological sites and objects of study were moved or destroyed; computers hacked and reappropriated; threats of violence were recorded with members specifically mentioning their weapons; on the site they found bomb making materials; they found piles of human feces; they found weapons illegally owned by parolees...

Like I said above: either the government blew a truly slam dunk case, or the jury let the white people walk. Those are the only two options.

Please wait...

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