title:  Dem Presidential Candidate Asks: What If Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists Were Black, Muslim?
text: Democratic presidential Martin O Malley just got real about the response to the right-wing domestic terrorists who are occupying federal land in Oregon.Speaking to an Iowa radio station, O Malley, the former governor of Maryland and mayor of Baltimore, was blunt about the ongoing situation. This is not the way we act as Americans and I dare say that the federal government s exercising a lot of restraint here,  said O Malley.  It s hard to fathom or it s hard to imagine if the people taking over buildings by armed force were Muslim or black, as some commentators have said, it would be the same reaction. So hopefully this will get resolved peacefully. They are not militia, they re acting in criminal ways, this is criminal behavior. Since the militia members   led by the son of rogue rancher Cliven Bundy   illegally took over the federal facility, the mainstream media has fumbled over what precisely to call the men. First they were called  peaceful protesters, and  then they were called  armed protesters  in dispatches from ABC News and the Associated Press.Even after one of the men, who are white, made a public statement that he would be willing to die while occupying the government land, the bulk of the mainstream media has been unwilling to apply the label of  terrorism  to their activities.The kid gloves treatment being afforded to the gang   recently federal law enforcement said they could come and go as they please   has led people to compare the treatment to situations like 12-year-old Tamir Rice. Rice, who was black, had the police called on him while he played with a toy gun. Instead of being  talked down  and negotiated with, he was shot and killed in the street and led by the prosecutor a grand jury declined to indict the police officer who did the deed.In addition to the disparity in treatment, Republican presidential candidates have condemned the specific gun-wielding tactics of the occupiers while also heaping praise on the  principles  behind their gripes, which are complaints about the federal government collecting money for the use of land owned by the government.These men and other militia affiliated groups have tried to argue that the government cannot own the land in question, and that they should be allowed to raise profit-making livestock on it without paying anyone.Featured image via Flickr