Sunday, November 12, 2017

DECLARE WAR ON THE GOVERNMENT, GET HONORED BY THE GOVERNMENT -- IF YOU'RE A RIGHT-WING WHITE MALE

Remember, taking a knee during "The Star-Spangled Banner" is treason, but this government honoree is a patriot:
LAKE HAVASU CITY — A 2-mile section of road in Mohave County, Arizona, is being renamed after a resident and militia member who was killed during last year's standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

The Mohave County Board of Supervisors on Monday approved the renaming of a section of Yellowstone Road to LaVoy Finicum Road....

Finicum was a member of Citizens for Constitutional Freedom. He was shot and killed during the standoff in January 2016 by law enforcement officers. The state troopers who killed him were cleared of wrongdoing.

The organizers of the occupation were seeking an opportunity to advance their view that the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies were constitutionally required to turn over most of the public lands they manage to the individual states....

"I believe LaVoy Finicum died defending the Constitution in a manner of his own choosing," said Supervisor Hildy Angius, who introduced the proposal. "That is why I told his father, who stood in front of me with tears in his eyes, that I was proud to make the motion."

Several residents spoke in favor of the name change at the meeting. Kingman resident Jennifer Jones-Esposito called Finicum an "American patriot" who was "murdered in cold blood" at the hands of authorities.
You remember Finicum, don't you?
Robert "LaVoy" Finicum ... swore repeatedly that federal authorities wouldn't take him alive.

Finicum, a 55-year-old rancher from northern Arizona, said it over and over to the media outlets that interviewed him while he sat under a blue tarp at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.

He told CNN ...: "There's no way I'm going to sit in a concrete cell where I can't see the stars and roll out my bedroll on the ground. ... It's OK. I've lived a good life."

And MSNBC: "There are some things more important than your life, and freedom is one of them."

And even in his Twitter bio: "Rancher, Loves Freedom and willing to fight and die defending it."

... He wrote and self-published a novel, Only By Blood and Suffering, a right-wing fever dream of a post-apocalyptic landscape.

Talking Points Memo described the novel this way:
The account–although it is fiction– is a peculiar amalgamation of a make-believe family encountering a series of very real conservative nightmares. It's chock-full of footnotes and allusions to modern-day right-wing obsessions over everything from how "the Republican party continues to alienate their conservative base" to NSA spying and the threat of a nationalized police force.
And maybe you remember how he died:
... LaVoy Finicum and 7 other militia members drove away from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and headed toward John Day for a community meeting.

Along the way, authorities from the FBI and the Oregon State Police intercepted the 2-car caravan along Hwy 395 that included brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy. The Bundys, in the second car, stopped and surrendered.

Finicum, driving the lead vehicle, stopped for minutes. No one in that vehicle surrendered. Then Finicum stepped on the gas and tried to get past the blockade. Instead, he drove off the left side of the road into a snowbank, almost hitting 2 agents positioned at the blockade.

He got out of the car, reached across his body into his jacket — where he was known to keep a gun — and was shot to death by law officials.
The first time he stopped, he dared officers at the scene to shoot him.
... videos captured police identifying themselves as Oregon State Patrol and ordering Finicum to turn off his engine. Refusing their order, Finicum yelled back that he was going ... and that the only way officers could prevent that meeting was to shoot him. Finicum yelled at the troopers, "You back down or you kill me now. Go ahead. Put the bullet through me. I don't care. I'm going to go meet the sheriff. You do as you damned well please."
When he finally left his vehicle, he committed suicide by cop:
The trooper who had made it to the tree line had drawn his revolver and now commanded Finicum to get on the ground.

"Go ahead and shoot me," Finicum said.

"Get on the ground," the trooper yelled back.

Finicum continued yelling "Shoot me" and "You're going to have to shoot me."

He turned his attention from the trooper in the woods to two troopers coming up behind him, including the one who had fired at the truck. As Finicum shifted direction, the trooper in the woods holstered his gun and drew out his Taser X2, which can be effective from 25 feet but works best at about 15 feet.

Finicum at least twice reached with his right hand toward the inside of his left jacket, where he had a loaded Ruger SR9 semi-automatic pistol that had been a gift from his stepson.

He then turned back toward the trooper approaching with the Taser. He again reached for his jacket.

"It was consistent with drawing a handgun," the trooper with the Taser told investigators. "He's going for a gun and I can tell you right now, uh, I was very uncomfortable."

He continued ordering Finicum to stop.

"He had the drop on me at this point," the trooper said.

One of the troopers who had been coming up behind Finicum saw the same motion - "consistent with grabbing a firearm" is how he described it to investigators.

"I need to take action to stop him from being a threat" to the trooper with the Taser, he later told investigators.
The people who vilify NFL players for respectful nonviolent protest, who try to turn unarmed victims of police brutality into villains, and who accuse even peaceful left-wing protestors of the intent to start a violent anti-American revolution are the ones who will applaud this move.

Hate the existence of the federal government. Love America. That's patriotism, folks.

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