title:  Oregon Ranchers Who Started Bundy Occupation Threatened To Kill Refuge Employees And Their Kids
text: By now, everybody knows that the two ranchers who inspired the Bundy militia standoff fiasco in Oregon are no innocent victims of the big bad federal government. However, new details were given by current and former Malheur Wildlife Refuge employees about the family which reveal a long and very serious criminal history.Dwight and Steve Hammond have had friction between the federal government and themselves for decades. Forrest Cameron, who served as Fish and Wildlife Service manager from 1989 to 1999 described how the conflict with the Hammonds goes all the way back to the 1980s when they made death threats against refuge employees. Cameron explained that  one way or another the Hammonds were violating their permit  for grazing on refuge lands, to where there was never a time when there was not some problem occurring. Cameron went on to say,  They ve done so many illegal activities that never got to a courtroom. Some violations were not significant, and we figured we could correct it by talking to them. A biologist employed at the refuge reported that the Hammonds engaged in aerial hunting of coyotes on the refuge, which is illegal. Cameron said that the Hammonds had an airplane at the time.  They were flying to shoot coyotes on their land, and we didn t have a problem with that.  However, the biologist allegedly saw the Hammond s plane flying over refuge property, which the Hammonds denied.In August 1994, the Fish and Wildlife Service was trying to fence a waterhole used by waterfowl, because the Hammonds were also using it for their cattle. Fish and Wildlife wanted to protect it solely for waterfowl use. As the fence was being constructed, the Hammonds disabled a Caterpillar vehicle, sabotaging the construction of the fence. Dwight and Steve Hammond were arrested and charged with felonies for impeding, intimidating, and interfering with federal officers.Before the 1994 fiasco with the waterhole, Cameron said that there were death threats being made against his family, as well as other staff members and their families as well: My wife would take these phone calls, it was terribly vulgar language. They said they were going to wrap my son in barbed wire and throw him down a well. They said they knew exactly which rooms my kids slept in, in Burns. There were death threats to my wife and two other staff members and their wives. My family went to Bend rather than be in the community because it was so volatile at the time. The families of my biologist and my deputy manager family had to relocate as well for a short time. At the refuge headquarters, one of the Hammonds said they would tear my head off and shit down the hole. One of the Hammonds told my Deputy Manager, Dan Walsworth, they were going to  put a chain around his neck and drag him behind a pickup. Source: RawstoryThese are the people that right-wing America are holding up as both heroes and victims. They are neither. Personally, I will admit that at first the idea of five years for burning grassland sounded like an excessive sentence. Perhaps all alone it would arguably still be one (although the details of the case appear much worse.) However, these people have been engaging in bad behavior   to put it extremely mildly   for decades now. They earned what they got, and to defend them is to defend nothing short of good old home-grown domestic terrorism. Period.