This is the independent media guy from Burns.

He is in jail on 9 federal charges at this point. Most of the charges are related to his "speech". I believe one is related to him impeeding federal vehicles and allegedly throwing a rock at an FBI convoy.

I guess the indictment says that his reporting on the issue incited more individuals to go to Burns and incited them to knowningly enguage in criminal activity.

Regardless of what you think of this issue and the people involved this should scare you a little. This is a new thing arresting reporters on such grounds and it appears to me to be an attack on free speech.

I don't know about you but under no circumstances do I want news reporters being arrested for reporting the news, I don't care what point of view they have. When it comes to throwing rocks it's another thing all together but you should never be arrested for your speech no matter what.

My impression has always been that you can say whatever you wish as long it is not a direct threat, which you have the means to carry out and you have taken a substantial step toward in carrying it out; this is a violation of the law but nothing else is.....

What do you guys think about this?

It takes intent as a main element to have probable cause for most crimes, problem with intent is intent can only be implied in specific cases when negligence is not a reasonable defense.

The intent for these crimes for all these suspects is going to be difficult to prove because they all require intent in order for their to be probable cause. In this situation the victim is the same as the prosecution and complainant. The suspects feel that they were not engaged in criminal behavior, think what you like but it's true, their interpretation of the law and constitution is different and they felt they were acting within the law "no intent". The feds need to prove that the suspects were knowingly committing crimes, I think it will be difficult to achieve that.

Rich,

The Constitution guarantees a right of free speech. But rights come with responsibilities. That part is forgotten or was never known to the Malhuer whack jobs. You yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater that is not on fire and you will be prosecuted. I don't know if it's illegal to encourage other people to join an illegal occupation, but the court will figure that out. The fact that the nut cases didn't think the occupation was illegal doesn't give them a pass. So their perception of no intent is no better than some idiot who doesn't think robbing stores or banks is illegal. It's legal to be an idiot, but if one's idiotic behavior includes illegal acts, then they can and will be prosecuted and penalized if found guilty.

Free speech includes the right to report on the occupation, and even to agree with the occupation, or write that the government is oppressive and that it should turn the refuge over to ranchers. But encouraging others to join an illegal occupation might be like inciting other people to riot, and that was ruled an illegal act by courts long, long ago.

Sg

To that list, Salmo, yu can add allegedly throwing a rock at the Feds.

I agree that we have a right to protest. We just have to be willing to accept the consequences. I may believe that I am in the right, and I can (for example), safely drive 90mph on I-90. Still won't stop me from getting a ticket and trying to explain it to the judge.

They are getting their day in court. They can lay out all their arguments and view of the Constitution. If they are right, they'll prevail.

I just don't know....

My experience has shown that there are very few judges and prosecutors that are honest, the vast majority will not make any personal sacrifices or risks to do the right thing.

I could tell you how bad it is but I won't bother because you would not allow yourself to believe it.

The only real crimes committed were the murder of Lavoy Finnicum attempted murder of the other vehicle occupants, and the false arrests and unlawful detentions of a bunch of God fearing patriotic Americans.

That truely is what has happened, unfortunate but true. The law is the law and these crimes were clearly committed.

The protesters did not commit any crimes, (There was no intent and no victim).

The alleged victim is the same entity as the arresting/charging authority, same as the prosecuting authority, same as the judging authority and the same as the incarceration authority.

Rich your news bu11shit filter is broken.

Disagree.

Rich you were a tribal cop, you cant remotely compare those so called court jesters to any court outside the rez. They're probably all drunk any way. I would hope you get some help with your issues if you're not just trolling.

I was a tribal cop for 3 years until 2003.

2003-2004 I worked for the City of Newport WA

2004-2012 I worked for Mason County Sheriff, I was a deputy, detective, SWAT, boating officer. Ran for Sheriff in 2009-2010 and lost. Was a whistleblower, filed a couple lawsuits, myself and two others reported a bunch or my co-workers for criminal acts. As a result all three of us are no longer in law enforcement.

It was me, a general investigations detective at the time, the Narcotics task force Seargent and a senior narcotics detective. Over 3 years we compiled Over 9000 pages of documents which gave probable cause for the arrest of multiple law enforcement officers who committed misdemeneor and felony acts on duty, the crimes ranged from false swearing, destruction of evidence\providing false evidence, purjury and fraud.

All who committed criminal acts are still working as cops with nothing in their records. All who reported agianst them were run out with the help of the agencies we went to for help. We went to the FBI, WSP, State Attorney General and our own prosecutor, they all circled the wagons and F@#$ed us without hesitation.

A man that stands up to police corruption and risks everything to do what's right is rare these days. I applaud your sense of responsibility. Police corruption is a huge problem and those that have witnessed firsthand how pervasive it is know what that monster looks like.

Rallying against police corruption is about the only way to guarantee you'll never work in that field again. You can beat up old people, kill unarmed citizens or shoot a pet and get rehired anywhere. Speak out about corruption or abuses and you have a scarlet letter.

I learned alot from the experience, not to trust government ever.....

I have no hard feelings for the ones that screwed me, I sleep well at night I am sure most of them don't.

It did take me time to forgive because I lost almost everyting as a result of telling the truth, for a while I was mad....

Yes I am blackballed unfortunately, I have tested it, I can't even get an interview for a grounds keeper or janitor if it's a county,state or city job.

Yeah our LEO and criminal justice system needs a complete overhaul.

We have some comman ground.

I don't get into the details of what happened much anymore, I have put it behind me.

I will say that it was a life changing event, completely changed my belief system regarding what I had dedicated my life too. I found out that it was all a lie and I had wasted 16 years of govt service between the Military and civil service. What I got out of it was I learned about people, what makes them tick and what motivates them and truely how almost no one is willing to make any personal sacrifice whatsoever to do the right thing. 99.5% of people will save their own ass every time and forget about doing what's right.

I'm not talking about rescuing cats out of trees and saving people out of burning houses, that's different than the type of sacrifice I'm talking about. I'm talking about doing the right thing and telling the truth.

Thats what the criminal justice system violates the most, (your trust). The entire culture of our system is built on trust and faith that good people are in positions of authority and are looking out for your best interests. The people in these positions understand that it's a fogone conclusion that they are telling the truth, even before they speak... They use this against you, the fact that you are supposed to trust them and that you wish to trust them, it makes it easy for them to take advantage of your trust. Believe me,,,, it happens fairly often.

They all are trained by the same organization, the playbook is standardized. All do it the same way because that's how they are trained.

Not all bad people by any means but when it comes down to it you don't want to be on the other side of things when one of them screws up and creats a situation where they have exposed the city or county to civil liability and subjected the "image" to being damaged.

When that happens they will do whatever it takes to "change history".

This explains a lot.
How many years/pages do you have on bigfoot?
Big difference between irrefutable and probable.
DUMBASS

Nothing can be done about any of this in the short term. People just have too much to loose, mortgages, car payments, kids and wives, you risk everything for going against the program, and you will loose if you choose that path.

I don't have to offer up this Info, I'm doing it for your bennefit, so you can use it to your advantage if you like or need to.

Rich,

Considering your penchant for Bigfoot, gnomes, the Malhuer Malitia, and other tin-foil conspiracies, have you ever thought that maybe it's not so surprising that your and your two former co-workers' version of the corruption in Mason County didn't carry the day? I'm not saying that corruption does not exist in law enforcement and the justice system, certainly it does. But that doesn't mean it exists behind every tree, and it's possible that it didn't exist in Mason County the way you thought it did.

Your support for the criminal militia at Malhuer and labeling them as God fearing American patriots undermines whatever credibility I might have had for your story about corruption in Mason County LE and justice.

Sg

I asked myself many times if we were seeing things correctly....

Truthfully it was partially due to this experience which allowed me to be much more open minded. It furthered a process of allowing me to accept the possibility that our world was not quite what we all thought it was, that it was likely we were being purposely mislead and taught a false past. I was already struggling with the Bigfoot issue, once I saw it in 2000 I knew it was not a myth and I surely was not the first on duty cop to see one. Shortly after my Bigfoot sighting in LA Push there was a UFO sightings above James Island, couple dozen people saw it hover over James island, disc shaped different colored lights. The next day the FBI was there at the Coast Guard station talking to witnesses, told them all it was some kind of helicopter, (nothing to see here move along). I was not working that night but talked to people tat saw it and it was no helicopter.

I was already not believing everything I was told by the time I became a whistleblower but that experience solidified my distrust, I found out that there was an agenda and it would be protected at pretty much any cost.

Believe what you want, I prefer to be open minded and listen to coman sense ideas and theories not necessarily the ones we were taught in school.

You're so open minded that your brain has apparently fallen out.

What's wrong with accepting the possibility that we don't know everything, that just maybe our world is a bit more parinormal than you might think.

How does considering all evidence make you delusional?

How does deciding for yourself based on your own experiences make you delusional?

How does deciding that you are not going to just takes people's word for things make you delusional?

How is anyone else qualified to tell me or you how things are and what's what? How do they know? How do we know that the information they believed and passed onto us is correct?

The way I see it based on my experiences my ideas and theories are much more legitimate than the mainstream.

And how many times has "what is generally generally accepted as reality" has been shown to be wrong? Or are you saying that what we know now is all complete and there is nothing to learn?

Not saying' that Rich is right all the time, but there are times when I can't be positive that he's wrong.

The earth is not flat, it does not revolve around the sun, but that was generally accepted as reality at one time.