title:  Sorry Republicans, LaVoy Finicum Didn’t Have His Hands Up When He Was Shot
text: As much as many conservatives would like to believe that the Bundy militia were merely innocent victims of the government, a picture is emerging that makes it clear the now-deceased LaVoy Finicum intentionally provoked a reaction from the law enforcement officers after trying to flee arrest.Finicum was part of a large group of the Bundy militants who were stopped by the FBI en route to yet another propaganda appearance in a nearby town. Rather than simply let the group go unimpeded, the authorities finally decided to act. It was a long time coming. The group had occupied a federal wildlife refuge for over a month, and with no end in sight and violent, paranoid extremists flooding into the region the situation was getting more out of hand by the moment.Sadly, it was not entirely surprising to learn that it was Finicum who resisted arrest. He had frequently claimed that he would rather die in a shootout than be arrested. Whether that was his intention on the night of his death is unclear, but his hostility towards law enforcement and his paranoia certainly contributed.Not everyone is convinced, however. Almost immediately after Finicum s death was announced, right-wing sympathizers began spinning a conspiracy that he had been executed with his hands up while his fellow  patriots  watched. The myth wasn t relegated to the backwaters of the internet, either. Soon, even sitting Republican politicians and Bundy s own Facebook page were repeating the tale.Michele Fiore, an anti-government conservative who   hypocritically  happens to work as a state representative in Nevada, repeated the lie to her Twitter followers.My heart & prays go out to LaVoy Finicum's family he was just murdered with his hands up in Burns OR.Ryan Bundy has been shot in the arm  Michele Fiore (@VoteFiore) January 27, 2016Jim Hoft, a conservative blogger who has been labeled the Stupidest Man on the Internet for consistently posting misinformation, ran with the story, repeating Cliven Bundy s baseless claim: LaVoy Finicum was murdered. Cold-blooded murder. They shot him with his hands up. Unfortunately for this convenient narrative, witnesses of the arrest say Finicum was the provoker. Melvin Lee was behind the Bundy convoy during the arrest. He recounts how Finicum tried to flee, and the wound up charging the officers. There happened to be some arguments between the guys in the truck. Somehow they got Ryan Payne pulled out of the truck, apparently. LaVoy had took off   he ended up hitting a snowbank, I guess, trying to get around the blockade. After he hit that snowbank, he came out of that truck and he charged at the law enforcement, as I understand it. A bodyguard of Ammon s said that Finicum crashed his car, then jumped out and began charging at the agents. He also concluded that this was entirely in Finicum s character. He was not on his knees, none of that. He was none of that nonsense. You know, that was a miscommunication on somebody else s part. But he went after them. He charged them. You know, LaVoy was very passionate about what he was doing up here. Finicum is said to have been radicalized by the Bundy s during the Nevada ranch showdown. In an interview, he once said that Cliven asked him to be the first  cowboy  to show up to what would become the standoff. I said Cliven, don t let them take your cows,  Finicum recalled in an interview with OPB.  He says saddle up your horse and be here early in the morning. I was the first cowboy to show up in the dark. In fall 2015, Finicum followed in Bundy s footsteps and chose to stop complying with his lease contract with the Bureau of Land Management, in spite of a long positive relationship with the agency.His death was the culmination of years of right-wing paranoia being relentlessly hurled at him from conservative politicians and media figures. They exploited his anxieties and played on his fears until eventually he decided to take action. There s no question that Finicum died believing he was in a struggle with a tyrannical government. His charge at authorities confirms that. Perhaps that is why the right-wing so desperately wants to prove that his hands were up. If he was innocent, than so are they.But he wasn t.Featured image via screen capture