Conservative Terrorist Groups Are Blocking Oregon from Addressing Climate Change

Authored by washingtonmonthly.com and submitted by polit1cs
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The Oxford Dictionary defines terrorism as follows: “The unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.”

It’s hard to see the actions of right-wing “militias” in Oregon as anything else:

The Oregon Capitol will be closed Saturday due to a “possible militia threat” from right-wing protesters as a walkout by Republican lawmakers over landmark climate change legislation drags on… “The Oregon State Police has recommended that the Capitol be closed tomorrow due to a possible militia threat,” Carol Currie, spokeswoman for Senate President Peter Courtney, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press late Friday. The governor’s office also confirmed the threats. Oregon State Police, in a statement, said it has been “monitoring information throughout the day that indicates the safety of legislators, staff and citizen visitors could be compromised if certain threatened behaviors were realized.”

It’s not the first time armed groups have perpetrated this on the Oregon people, using unsanctioned violence in the pursuit of political aims:

One of the groups, the Oregon Three Percenters, joined an armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016. Dozens of people occupied the remote Oregon refuge for more than a month to protest federal control of Western lands. The standoff began to unravel when authorities fatally shot the group’s spokesman and arrested key leaders as they headed to a community meeting.

The trigger for this incident is the flight of Republican legislators from the statehouse to prevent majority Democrats from taking up a cap-and-trade bill to limit the damage of the climate crisis. In fairness, Democrats in Texas also used this tactic in 2003, but that was to prevent Tom Delay’s blatantly immoral and undemocratic redistricting scheme. Republicans in Oregon are defending the interests of corporate resource extraction firms bent on enriching themselves at the expense of future generations condemned to live on an inhospitable planet.

More to the point, what Democrats didn’t do in Texas was issue terroristic threats, as at least one Oregon legislator did today against law enforcement”

Also late Friday, Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek, both Democrats, condemned comments made by Sen. Brian Boquist, a Republican from Dallas, Oregon, that urged the state police to “send bachelors and come heavily armed” when they come to bring him back to the Capitol. “His comments have created fear among employees in our workplace,” the leaders said in a joint statement. “We will always defend free speech and welcome frank policy discussions, but threats like these are unacceptable.”

I leave it to the reader to ask themselves what the media coverage of this incident would look like if the white conservative militias making threats in Oregon were Islamist extremist groups, and if the legislator making threats of violence against police were named, say, Ilhan Omar. I think we all know, don’t we?

HyFikz on June 24th, 2019 at 21:52 UTC »

Imagine joining a terrorist group in order the shell out for corporate interests and destroy the planet.

Kahzgul on June 24th, 2019 at 21:36 UTC »

Here's what I don't get: The police know there are credible threats against the state legislature by these terrorists. Instead of arresting the terrorists to foil their plans, they effectively let the plans succeed by fiat and told the legislature to shut down. If I were the governor watching this, I'd deploy the national guard to do the job the cops aren't and ensure the legislators are safe and free to conduct the business of governing.

Edit: for all the people replying with "some of those that work forces..." or similar responses about the cops being the same people as the right wing terrorists, I think this only further serves to illustrate why the national guard should be deployed.

Edit 2: For anyone who hasn't been following this religiously, here's a quick timeline:

Republicans stormed out of the state senate over objections to a law. The governor and democratic leaders in congress agreed to scale back that law in exchange for republicans promising not to storm out over any other future objections. A week later, republicans stormed out over objections to a climate change bill. Under an Oregonian constitutional mandate, the governor dispatched state troopers to find the republicans and compel them to do their jobs in the state senate. The governor is also fining each state senator $500 for each day they fail to appear. One of the state senators said to only send bachelors to come get him and that they had better be ready to die. A terrorist group in Idaho announced that they would harbor the republicans from oregon. It is not clear if any of the state senators accepted the offer of extrajudicial protection. A totally different terrorist group in Oregon issued credible threats of violence against democrats working at the state capitol this past weekend. Instead of arresting the terrorists making the threats, the governor capitulated and told the democrats to stay home over the weekend instead of doing work. We are here now, and since the police have not taken any apparent action against the successful terrorists in Oregon, I suggest deploying the national guard to protect the lawmakers who choose to actually do their jobs instead of running to Idaho in dereliction of their duties.

monkeywithgun on June 24th, 2019 at 21:04 UTC »

Time to identify their members and freeze all their assets.