Well that’s just great. What a great message to send to the sovereign-citizen crowd who have been taught a Clinton presidency is illegitimate on its face. Maybe they will just storm the White House without fear of reprisal now.
This wasn’t “conspiracy to prevent federal employees from doing their jobs.” This was armed insurrection, and it went unpunished. We’re all extremely fucked.
Four of them had additional charges for weapons/theft that should have been a slam dunk, which makes me also think this was simply jury nullification, but yes, at least the Bundys aren’t off the hook yet.
This is just insane.
What law school did these prosecutors go to? Did Trump University start giving out law degrees? You had several of these nut-bags defending themselves and they couldn’t get a conviction? Maybe there are super-powers in those pocket constitutions.
:smack:
Were they charged with trespassing or destruction of property? Surely they’re guilty of those things even if conspiracy can’t be proven.
I heard that a big problem for the prosecution is that there were more FBI informants in the conspiracy than actual conspirators, not sure if it’s true or not.
I agree the conspiracy charge was possibly a stretch. But to be found not guilty of possession of firearms in a federal facility and not guilty of theft of government property? That has to be jury nullification.
I’m pretty sure that’s not true. Which of the occupiers were supposedly informants?
Right. Isn’t there video of individuals holding firearms? How could they possibly not be guilty of the firearms charge? This certainly seems like jury nullification.
Well, can the Feds at least charge these dildos for the cleanup? I know I’d get a ticket if I stepped off the road at the local wildlife refuge, much less setting up camp and moving in for a few weeks.
Are there other charges that can be brought at this point? (I know that the Bundys still face charges for the previous incident, I’m talking about just the refugee occupation.)
A good friend of mine commented that we should have gone full-Waco on them, which seems like it might have been a more effective response: there would have been a bunch of negative press and outrage, but at least it would have engendered some respect/fear in the fuckheads.
I begin to feel as though they should have gone half-Waco: have the employees come to work, escorted by armed guards. Just gently but firmly shove the fuckheads out of the way. The fuckheads would not be in a position to use their guns or the whole thing would have blown up in their face. It was, after all, a “peaceful” protest.
Are you asking about other federal charges?
I’m going to assume many people here don’t go to conservative sites too often. Just as many conservatives don’t go to liberal sites too often. So I don’t think people here realize the extent of the distrust and hatred very many people have towards people in charge. This reminds me of the O.J. trial, with people scratching their heads wondering, “How?” Many people just want to punch the establishment in the eye and if a few guilty people walk, then so be it.
I’m glad I sent them a box of dildos.
Federal, state, local, whatever.
As much as I’m leaning towards jury nullification, is possible the prosecutor decided to roll the dice and go for max charges and skip the trespassing, destruction of property, etc., as being too minor?
I don’t honestly know why the Feds seem to have limited the charges. Or was that all they could come up with?
The trial was held in Portland, OR. I would presume the jurors were local to the area. Is there that much anti-government sentiment in that area? Has the press interviewed the members of the jury yet as to why they acquitted them?
No, the jurors were drawn from a statewide pool. At least one of them, IIUC, hailed from Baker City, which is seasonally less than an hour from Idaho.
And Portland itself has its fair share of wackadoodles. I lived there, I met several of them. Oregon has a dim history of dubiousness: a part of the original State Constitution that made it illegal for negros to move there was repealed a tad less than a century ago. The Klan tried to gain supporters in Oregon, but it ultimately just fizzled because there were not enough negros to get stirred up about.
It is an odd place. There is lots of liberalness on the surface, but dig a bit and you will get into some very redolent right-wing muck.
Sort of a thinking man’s Idaho?
There are wise and intelligent people in Idaho. The state is dominated by the bowl part, but when you get north of Idaho County, into the tank part, you will find decent non-idiots (along with some genuine stay-away-from-that-guy people).