Hammond
Bundy shares his own testimony. Time 10:02
The Hammond Plight
It is a matter of public record that for years the Hammond's property has been sought after by federal agencies for years along with the property of many other ranchers.
There is a fairly accurate history of what they have been dealing with for years at several place. including Natural News. There is clear evidence that people employed at the BLM have been vindictive and even malicious in their personal abuse[1] of the Hammond family and other ranchers.
The federal government is now using the federal court system to take their land. People in government have misused anti terrorist laws to harass and destroy this family.
The Hammond's have been tried as if they were terrorist, fined $400,000 and coerced into giving over their ranch to the BLM if they sell.
Now for the second time they must report to federal prison for the same offence to serve an unjust sentence of five years, after already fulfilling their original sentence. All because they started a standard and safe prescribed burn and safely stopped a lightening fire.
Meanwhile some people in the BLM appear to be driving ranchers out of business including intentionally burning them out. Of course that must be a distortion of the facts. Or is it?
Watch the video with an open mind and you be the judge and then do something.
First fire
What did they actually do?
The Hammond's openly and safely burned off dead grass and dangerous excess fuel growth after giving proper notice to the county.
There were no malicious, wicked or mischievous motives or intentions behind what the Hammonds were doing. Dwight’s wife, Susan, said, “They called and got permission to light the fire… We usually called the inter-agency fire outfit – a main dispatch – to be sure someone wasn’t in the way or that weather wouldn’t be a problem.”
- “In cross-examination of a prosecution witness, the court transcript also includes an admission from Mr. Ward, a range conservationist, that the 2001 fire improved the rangeland conditions on the BLM property.”
According to Erin Maupin, a former BLM range technician and watershed specialist and rancher in the area who had been the neighbor of the Hammonds for years, said researchers have determined that managing the invasive junipers, which steal water from grass and other cover was something necessary to improve the conditions on the land.
- “Juniper encroachment had become an issue on the forefront and was starting to come to a head. We were trying to figure out how to deal with it on a large scale,” said Maupin.
The Hammonds were simply engaging in what is commonly known as prescribed fires. That is a practice done for hundreds years by BLM, ranchers and even the native Americans before them.
The second fire
The second fire was started on their land to stop a lightening fire that was doing a great deal of damage to winter feed. Their back fire worked and saved the range land and maybe their homes and others.
The men were charged nearly a decade after the first fire and five years after the second.
What some people in the Federal government have done according to an October 7, 2015 press release from the Department of Justice, is charge them as terrorists with malicious intent under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. Dwight Lincoln Hammond, Jr., 73, and his son, Steven Dwight Hammond, 46, both residents of Diamond, Oregon in Harney County, were sentenced to five years in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken for arsons they committed on federal lands.
The family of Dwight Hammond have made a terrible mistake. They tried to ranch land someone in the federal government seems to want. Now it appears that both Hammond and his son Steve are being railroaded for something that is a non-criminal act that was not only good but could be called heroic.
Sentenced twice for the same act
This second sentencing for the same charge was interesting because they had already been sentenced in 2012 by now-retired U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan. Steven received one year and a day in prison for setting fires in 2001 and 2006. Dwight got 3 months for his 2001 involvement. Hogan did not believe the men had malicious intent to be labeled as terrorists under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. There were also hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines placed on this family for doing no damage to anyone including the land in question.
Under a great deal of emotional and financial pressures brought on by cruel and abusive individuals working behind the scenes in the BLM and the courts and an apathetic public the Hammond family agreed to a plea deal that they would not appeal the 2012 sentence in order to bring the case to a close.
Both men had served their sentences and were released. But then some people in the federal government have come back to vindictively reopen the same case another time to impose the mandatory minimum five-year sentence prescribed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 even though there was no malicious intent as required by the act.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has labelled the Hammonds as terrorists under the 1996 law in order to put them back in jail at the request of some people who also forced the Hammonds to sign an agreement that the BLM has the first right of refusal if they have to sell. Of course this vindictive abuse of the courts is likely to force the family to sell their home, business and land. This certainly seems to be the plan all along considering the government wanted that first right of refusal and they have already taken over thousands of acres of formerly private lands.
Almost no one has the courage to stand for the Weightier matters of law, justice, and mercy much less faith as required by common sense and Jesus Christ.
The public should be fearful
The public should be fearful but not of the Hammonds who are good people but of people hiding in government bureaucracies who are using their unchecked power to work mischief.
Barry Bushue, the president of the Oregon Farm Bureau stated “I find it incredible that the government would want to try these ranchers as terrorists,” He went on to say, “Now is where the rubber meets the road. Right now is when the public should absolutely be incensed. And the public, I think, should be fearful.”
Why?
Because there are not very many people in America who are brave. Modern Christians are not really Christians. And most people just want safety for themselves and do not really love their neighbor as themselves. They certainly do not attend to the Weightier matters Jesus told us about.
See The Washington Standard story and interview for more details
Real terrorists and arson
As you can see the BLM does not always do it safely like the Hammonds did. They come in at the wrong time of year and actually burn up ranch buildings fences, power power poles and even burn cows and their calves alive. They do this with impunity because America is no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave.
What you often get from either ignorant or immoral government employees is false information that misleads the people like the DOJ’s acting US Attorney Billy Williams said:
- “Fires intentionally and illegally set on public lands, even those in a remote area, threaten property and residents and endanger firefighters called to battle the blaze.”
- “Congress sought to ensure that anyone who maliciously damages United States’ property by fire will serve at least 5 years in prison,” he added. “These sentences are intended to be long enough to deter those like the Hammonds who disregard the law and place fire fighters and others in jeopardy.”
But in the Hammond case there was no malicious intent. They were engaged in open good management practices on their own land where a small amount of some BLM graze was burned before the Hammonds brought the fire under control. The only graze that was affected was the Hammond graze which they paid for and came back better than after after the burn. No firefighters were endangered and no property damage was actually caused. What they did is done every year all over the west. The BLM calls it fuel reduction and prescribed burns and good management, unless they want to run you out of business and destroy your life so that they can get your land.
The term arson, means, “the malicious burning or exploding of the dwelling house of another, or the burning of a building within the curtilage, the immediate surrounding space, of the dwelling of another.”
Who ever gave the order to those poor employees of the BLM who were used to set those fires and burn those cattle alive, homes and fences would appear to me to have "wicked or mischievous motives or intentions.”
So, we know there was no malicious intent on the part of the Hammonds, but rather normal ranch operations. So what they did cannot be considered arson. But what we see the BLM doing and the employees who were just following orders did looks like it was done with wicked and malicious intent if not extreme negligence since buildings, corrals, fences and live cattle were clearly visible as they set fires.
Families need help
The family wrote on its website that they are "simple ranching family that for generations has cared for the land they live upon.”
- “Prescribed burns are a vital process in keeping the land healthy and productive in the area. The BLM also performs prescribed burns and have let it get out of control many times, but never has it cost any federal agent hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and years of life in prison. The Hammonds prescribed a fire that moved to public land, they extinguished the fire themselves. The courts found that the burn increased vegetation for the following years, and had a positive impact on the land. With no authority or justification to prosecute, eleven years after the fire, federal attorneys have obtained judgment that the Hammonds are terrorists and must be punished severely for their actions.”
Your family maybe next and if you do nothing but make stupid apathetic comments like they had their day in court then it is likely no one will come to your aid and rightly so.
Hue and cry |
Go and cry |
Cry out |
Employ |
Land |
Mind |
Corban |
Christian conflict |
Nicolaitan |
Religion |
Pure Religion |
Welfare types |
Daily ministration |
Self-Sacrifice |
Repent |
Weightier matters |
Altars |
Sophistry |
Friend |
Stones |
Forgiveness |
Forgive |
Forgive them |
In need of forgiveness |
Wantonness |
Covet |
Negotiating Health Care Costs |
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller
Law
Law |
Natural Law |
Legal title |
Common Law |
Fiction of law |
Stare decisis |
Jury |
Voir dire |
Consent |
Contract |
Parental contract |
Government |
Civil law |
Civil Rights |
Civil Government |
Governments |
No Kings |
Canon law |
Cities of refuge |
Levites |
Citizen |
Equity |
The Ten Laws |
Law of the Maat |
Bastiat's The Law and Two Trees |
Trees |
The Occupy Refuge Movement |
Clive Bundy |
Hammond |
Barcroft |
Benefactors |
Gods |
Jury |
Sanhedrin |
Protection |
Weightier matters |
Social contract |
Community Law |
Perfect law of liberty |
Power to change |
Covet |
Rights |
Anarchist |
Agorism |
Live as if the state does not exist |
If you need help:
- Or want to help others:
Join The Living Network of The Companies of Ten
The Living Network |
Join Local group |
About |
Purpose |
Guidelines |
Network Removal
Contact Minister |
Fractal Network |
Audacity of Hope |
Network Links
Footnotes
- ↑ As an example: "Shortly after the sentencing, Capital Press ran a story about the Hammonds. A person who identified as Greg Allum posted three comments on the article, calling the ranchers "clowns" who endangered firefighters and other people in the area while burning valuable rangeland. Greg Allum, a retired BLM heavy equipment operator, soon called Capital Press to complain that he had not made those comments and request that they be taken down from the website. Capital Press removed the comments. A search of the Internet Protocol address associated with the comments revealed it is owned by the BLM's office in Denver, Colorado. Allum said, he is friends with the Hammonds and was alerted to the comments by neighbors who knew he wouldn't have written them. "I feel bad for them. They lost a lot and they're going to lose more," Allum said of the ranchers. "They're not terrorists. There's this hatred in the BLM for them, and I don't get it," The retired BLM employee said. Jody Weil, deputy state director for communications at BLM's Oregon office, indicated to reporters that if one of their agents falsified the comments, they would keep it private and not inform the public." Learn more: