Like a gang of bikers, an angry but not quite so brave contingent of PatRioters-come-lately have decided they are more able to intimidate and less likely to get shot if they just parade around the little town of Burns.
Heeding calls for daily protests after Tuesday’s shooting death of a man who had been occupying a nearby national wildlife refuge, a “rolling rally” of dozens of vehicles clogged the streets of this tiny rural town Saturday evening.
Apparently some of them identify with the Confederacy, where people bought and sold kidnapped people, raped the women, and separated families. Yeah, that was a good system. And the jacked up pickups might be better when it comes to running roadblocks.
The cars and trucks, many of them the oversize, rugged models favored in this rough desert terrain, roared around town bearing U.S. flags, Confederate flags and passengers brimming with rage.
One of the camoshirt sympathizers who doesn’t seem to actually know that we don’t live “in a government” and doesn’t have a clue about who the brownshirts were, rambled:
“I feel we are living in a very corrupt government. Right now, people are getting pulled out of their car, getting guns pointed at their heads, and they killed an innocent man,” said Judi Rodgers, a resident of Harney County, who came carrying a sign that read, “Welcome to Nazi Germany.”
Wild stories about the shooting at the roadblock fuel their delusional rage:
The scene inside the car was a nightmare, she said.
"They open fire and keep blowing holes in it," she said. "It was evidence that they had every intention of killing us. They didn't want us to live."
She said police fired hundreds of bullets.
Meanwhile, the Not-So-Fearsome Foursome remains at the Refuge, at a bargain rate of 70,000 bucks a day, divided 4 ways, of course. Their awesomeness* has not yet persuaded authorities to drop all charges against everyone involved. So they are sharing Pop-Tarts and, one would assume, still expecting that contingent of ex-Navy Seals to come down their chimney.
*27 year old live-camming bigot; Sean Anderson (criminal from Wisconsin), his wife (an “ex-barber and cosmetologist”), and a “mow-yer-lawn?” guy from Ely, NV.
Meanwhile, government employees have been intimidated:
The protesters’ anti-government rhetoric prompted officials to encourage federal workers to lie low. Through the occupation refuge employees have been living outside the county, while other federal staff have been working from their homes.
That’s made for some lonely times for Oregon State University scientists who share an agricultural research station with federal colleagues. For the past four weeks, they’ve wandered down hallways filled with the empty office cubicles.
and the Refuge remains in tatters:
“I want it to be over. There are things that need to be done,” Dunbar said. “We got a canal on the refuge that’s got so many muskrat holes it’s like Swiss cheese.” In the weeks ahead, that canal will need to be able to carry water. But it’s hard to say when the repairs will happen….When the occupation finally ends, the buildings at the refuge headquarters will be considered a crime scene. Federal investigators could take weeks to tally damage and search for hazards. “They got a ton of buildings and a ton of equipment, and they got to look at all of it,” said Grasty, the county judge.