Monday, February 08, 2016

Occupy trespassed for months, ranchers arrested after 24 days of trespassing

By Rachel Alexander

Political correctness has invaded our culture so thoroughly there are essentially two tiers of justice in this country. If you are a white, progressive, privileged hippy Millennial, or a Black Lives Matter activist, law enforcement and the legal system will bend over backward to accommodate your protests and acts of civil disobedience. The media will hype up any incident in your favor.

In contrast, if you are a white, Christian, patriotic rural rancher raising cows for meat, you can expect to have the book thrown at you for the smallest infraction. If there is any media coverage, it will be spun against you.

Rural ranchers have a legitimate gripe against the federal government seizing 48 percent of the land in Western states, then leasing the land back to them at increasingly higher rates. It is eerily reminiscent of feudalism, peasants toiling on the land owned by the lords and nobles.

The ranchers and activists who took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in rural Oregon to protest the unjust prison sentence of the Hammonds were trespassing. Although the building is open to the public, staying overnight indefinitely without permission constitutes trespassing, which is generally considered a misdemeanor unless there are additional circumstances such as destroying property. In Oregon, criminal trespassing with a firearm is a misdemeanor. Due to the low-level nature of the crime, law enforcement often doesn't bother to arrest trespassers.

...When the Occupy movement camped out in parks around the country, they were trespassing by staying overnight when the parks are closed. However, the Occupiers were allowed to remain in the parks for months on end in some locations. The ranchers were not given this accommodation; law enforcement began arresting them just 24 days after they started the sit-in.

And unlike the ranchers, Occupiers caused millions of dollars of damage to property, which turns a trespassing misdemeanor into a felony. Everyone has seen the photos of Occupy protesters engaging in violence. "Occupy Wall Street Exposed has counted a dozen deaths, including three murders; more than a dozen rapes; more than 25 disgusting cases of indecent exposure, public defecation, etc; more than 500 thefts; more than 6,800 arrests; and in excess of $12 million in property damage," Powerline reported in 2012.

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