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Ammon Bundy, the leader of an anti-government militia, speaks to members of the media in front of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters on January 5, 2016 near Burns, Oregon. An armed anti-government militia group continues to occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Headquarters as they protest the jailing of two ranchers for arson.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
As if this story wasn’t strange enough, on Wednesday, the leader of a group of armed Oregon militants compared their standoff to civil rights icon Rose Parks who fought for racial equality.
“We are doing the same thing as Rosa Parks did,” Ammon Bundy, whose group Citizens for Constitutional Freedom took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday, tweeted early Wednesday. “We are standing up against bad laws which dehumanize us and destroy our freedom,” USA Today reports.
Twitter users were quick to point out that in 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white man sparking a nationwide bus boycott.
“Nice try. Rosa Parks didn’t hijack a bus with an assault rifle because she didn’t want to pay the bus fare,” one person tweeted.
“You terrorists are no Rosa Parks and it’s an insult to her to compare yourselves to her,” another responded.
USA Today reports that Bundy and his armed band of bandits have declared the eastern Oregon wildlife refuge theirs until two local ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond, are released from prison. The group of more than a dozen supporters, who have taken up refuge in the wildlife center for five days, also noted that they are investigating property records to find instances where federal officials seized private property. They vow that they are leaving until that land has been returned to the people who live in Harney County.
“This isn’t going to end until we get our public lands back,” Bundy tweeted Wednesday.
USA Today reports that the account was suspended briefly but restored after some time. The newspaper notes that Twitter didn’t respond to their queries as to why the account had been suspended but once the account was restored, Bundy tweeted: “Seditious Conspiracy is a serious federal crime as is aiding traitors #TwitterDidntWannaBeChargedWithTreason.”
Read more here and here.
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