Lavoy finnicum biography examples
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“Every medal given without the truth acknowledged or to those who do not deserve it is another wound for our family,” the letter said. Quit stealing.” He later took to Youtube where he asked, “You gonna come in there like You did with my friend, Clive?” He concluded: “Well, I’m telling you, leave me alone.
Events that did not meet these criteria or could not be verified to have happened were omitted.
The protests have ranged from just a scattering of a few people to over two hundred, while Finicum’s funeral in Utah brought around 700 sympathizers. I don’t know,” according to trial testimony.
Astarita testified that he didn’t remember his exact words.
In addition to Astarita and Neidert, Michael Ferrari, a senior leader, and a supervisory agent identified only as B.M.
were the other Hostage Rescue Team members at the roadblock.
COMPROMISED SCENE
During Astarita’s trial, Greg Bretzing, the FBI special agent in charge in Oregon at the time of the Finicum shooting, testified that agents seen on the agency’s infrared video picking up evidence that night did not follow protocol.
The Hostage Rescue Team members, including Astarita, acknowledged during their trial testimony that they had scoured the roadblock area for sensitive items or dropped gear but denied collecting any shell casings near Finicum’s shooting.
Agents are taught to “leave a scene as intact as possible’' and take photos of an officer-involved shooting scene before touching any potential evidence, Bretzing testified.
The Justice Department’s inspector general assigned staff to investigate Finicum’s shooting and released the results last year, finding the Hostage Rescue Team’s practice of identifying and removing sensitive items, such as night vision googles, weapons or unexploded flash bang grenades, from scenes presented a conflict with the FBI directive to properly preserve a crime scene.
A six-page advisory memorandum to FBI Director Christopher A.
Wray last summer recommended the agency develop better guidelines when an FBI team is working with local or state police agencies to ensure crime scenes are properly maintained and that removal of any equipment or potentially dangerous items is appropriately documented.
After Astarita’s acquittal, the inspector general sought FBI approval to compel the polygraph of an unnamed Hostage Rescue Team operator, presumably Astarita.
But the FBI denied the request, backed by then-Attorney General William Barr, “because of his belief that compelling the polygraph would not be consistent with FBI policy or appropriate under the circumstances,” the report said.
The inspector general disagreed, writing that the FBI’s denial “was inconsistent with its usual practice” and deprived his office of information that would have been useful in its inquiry.
The Astarita trial testimony had revealed that neither the FBI nor state or local investigators put up crime scene tape to preserve evidence or set up a log tracking who was coming and going at the roadblock until more than three hours after Finicum was shot.
According to testimony from state police and FBI agents, they were unclear about who was in charge of the scene until investigators from the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office and Tri-County Major Crime Team arrived.
The Hostage Rescue Team’s actions became an issue when state and local law enforcement investigators determined that eight shots had been fired at the roadblock — two more than the six shots that could be attributed to state police officers.
Further, investigators found only two shell casings at the scene, with both discovered off the road in the snow using metal detectors.
Astarita, now 48, was never put on leave and continues to work as an FBI agent.
In August 2021, a federal judge dismissed most of the claims brought in a wrongful death civil suit by Finicum’s family, who alleged Finicum had been shot “assassination style” after he stepped from his truck.
The judge kept alive a single civil rights claim against then-Gov.
Who has police forces across the country so indoctrinated and so intensely concerned to the point they see ranchers and family men as the greatest enemy to their country?
There wasn’t even one attempt to peacefully negotiate with the Malheur group and LaVoy Finicum, even though all LaVoy did at the refuge was speak to authorities in a non-threatening manner.
LaVoy would be alive and well at home, with his family today, acquitted of all wrong-doing, just as many other defendants associated with the stand off have been, if the FBI and the Oregon Highway Patrol had not escalated the situation.
Ironically, LaVoy wrote a book entitled ‘Only By Blood and Suffering“, originally published in 2015, that foreshadowed his own death.
In the Aftermath of LaVoy Finicum’s Death, Growing Number of Rallies Push Martyrdom Narrative
Since his death on January 26, 2016, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum –– the spokesman for the armed occupation that took place earlier this year at a wildlife refuge in Oregon –– has become a martyr to the antigovernment movement nationwide.
Finicum, who protested alongside antigovernment activists during the standoff between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the federal government on April 12, 2014, cemented his celebrity less than two years later while outspokenly supporting Oregon ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond, who were sentenced to federal prison for burning public lands.
“I’m not going to end up in prison,” Finicum stated in a news conference after he helped, along with Ammon and Ryan Bundy, storm the refuge.
And, this same principle applies to water and grazing rights, especially those handed down to pioneers’ descendants from territorial grants preceding statehood.
It was from this point of view that LaVoy started his journey towards his destiny, in June 2015, as he wrote the following in two separate letters to the BLM, three days apart that read, in part: “At this time I feel compelled to stand [up for] the Constitution of our land and in doing so please do not feel I am attacking your character.
LaVoy certainly wasn’t so dangerous or violent a man that he had to be so sorely mistreated and ultimately executed.
Whether he was armed or not is irrelevant. Our Constitution doesn’t state that anyone must allow themselves to be abused by government agents, or anyone else, and it doesn’t prevent any American from engaging in a proper and lawful act of self-defense, especially if one is defending themselves against government tyranny.
Passenger Shawna Cox captured the entire miserable and dastardly event on her cell phone, and I have watched the video with sound, that captured the moment of LaVoy’s death, so many numerous times, often choking back my own angry tears, to think that people sworn to protect and defend the Constitution could so casually ignore it in this or any case; and, each time, I can only conclude this was a planned execution.
From the first roadblock stop and the shot that hit LaVoy’s driver side mirror to the second roadblock, it becomes well and beyond apparent that this was a planned execution.
Codding has killed three people, including a teenager, “in the line of duty”. It accused the FBI, state police and Bureau of Land Management of negligence and failing to properly train and supervise its officers.
They’re dismayed that the question of who fired the two bullets as Finicum stepped out of his truck remains unanswered.
“The Finicum family is both devastated and angry,” by the award to Astarita and the other FBI agents involved in the stop, said Mark Herr, a family spokesperson.
By November 2021, the judge dismissed the entire case because lawyers representing Finicum’s family failed to respond to motions or court requests in time. The protagonist, a cowboy, dies in a shootout with the federal government, just as LaVoy finally did.
Real American patriots, such as Robert LaVoy Finicum, are far and few between these days, especially in the ranks of our elected officials, since so many so-called conservatives claim to stand for the Constitution against the federal government’s overreach, as they stand by silent and meek, in the wake of its insistent and continuous assaults against ‘We the People’ and our rights to life, liberty, property and freedom from the restrictions of arbitrary force.
People were initially able to come and go freely, until the protesters started blocking entrance from fear of federal government infiltration aimed at arresting and removing them, before they achieved their goals. But for some reason, as the corruption continues to grow at all levels of our government, it is now virtually impossible to tell the “good guys” from the “bad guys” in law enforcement.
One Facebook user, who identifies as a Three Percenter, posted a telling warning immediately following Finicum’s death:
“####////THEY FIRED THE FIRST SHOTS …..REMMBER [sic] THAT FOLKS ####”
Confrontation and Death
Plan to Attend Meeting in John Day
On January 26, 2016, occupation leaders including Ammon Bundy intended to attend a public community meeting in John Day, Grant County, Oregon, to build broader regional support for ranchers' rights advocacy and advance stalled negotiations with federal officials over public land management.[60][61] The event, organized by local sympathizers in a county where public lands comprise over two-thirds of the area, represented an effort to extend the protest's momentum beyond Harney County.[62]LaVoy Finicum drove a white pickup truck transporting Bundy brothers Ammon and Ryan, fellow occupier Ryan Payne, Utah resident Shawna Cox, and teenager Victoria Sharp; passengers carried loaded firearms consistent with the group's armed security protocol during the standoff.[63][64] Finicum positioned the journey as an extension of peaceful public engagement, emphasizing dialogue over confrontation despite prior frustrations with federal responses.[24]The group proceeded without knowledge of law enforcement intelligence anticipating their route, derived from an informant, though Finicum had articulated broader distrust of potential government tactics to impede their movements, stating he preferred death to incarceration.[65][24] This reflected his role as a vocal spokesman advocating constitutional remedies while rejecting surrender.[3]Traffic Stop and Initial Arrest Attempt
On January 26, 2016, a joint task force of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team and Oregon State Police initiated a high-risk traffic stop on U.S.Route 395 north of Burns, Oregon, targeting two vehicles departing the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupied by armed protesters.[66][67] The lead vehicle, carrying Ammon Bundy, Ryan Payne, and Brian Cavalier, complied with the stop, resulting in the arrest of its occupants without resistance.[68][66]Finicum drove the second vehicle, a white pickup truck containing passengers Ryan Bundy, Shawna Cox, and Victoria Sharp.[67] The truck pulled over behind the lead vehicle, but Finicum refused repeated orders to exit, citing existing arrest warrants while challenging officers with statements such as "arrest me or shoot me."[67][69] He expressed deep distrust of federal and state authorities, voicing fears of an ambush akin to tactics he believed were used in prior confrontations, including his involvement in the 2014 Bundy standoff in Nevada where he had publicly stated preferences against surrender.[70]Dashcam footage from an Oregon State Police vehicle recorded the tense verbal exchanges, in which Finicum questioned the legality of the warrants and asserted his constitutional rights to travel and bear arms, underscoring the standoff's ideological tensions over federal land management authority.[67][68] Perceiving drawn weapons as an imminent threat, Finicum accelerated northward, abandoning the arrest attempt.[67]
Flight, Roadblock, and Shooting
After the initial traffic stop on U.S.Route 395, Finicum accelerated away, driving north at speeds reaching 75 mph for approximately one mile toward a law enforcement roadblock.[71] As his truck approached the roadblock, an officer fired three shots at the vehicle, striking the grill, hood, and driver's side mirror, prompting Finicum to swerve and crash into a snowbank at about 50 mph.[71][68]Finicum exited the stuck truck and walked through the snow with his hands initially raised, but then reached twice toward the pocket of his jacket, where a loaded 9 mm handgun was located.[68] Video footage recorded by passenger Shawna Cox captured Finicum yelling, "Just shoot me!
The Oregonian/OregonLive obtained a copy of the photo, which had been shared internally at the FBI.
The caption said Finicum rammed his pickup into “the lead HRT vehicle,” trapping one of the team members under Finicum’s truck. He was acquitted of two counts of making a false statement and one count of obstruction of justice.
No one has ever taken responsibility for the shots.
Two state troopers moments later fired another three shots that killed Finicum as he walked away from his truck and reached into an interior pocket of his jacket, where investigators said he carried a loaded 9mm Ruger.
Astarita’s criminal defense lawyer, David Angeli of Portland, declined to comment Friday on the award given to his former client.
According to the FBI director, 96 recipients representing 20 FBI divisions received an award last month.
MISLEADING CAPTION
In the case of Astarita and his teammates, the FBI said they were honored for their “courageous acts in the line of duty.”
The caption on the FBI award photo said they responded to a “violent extremist militia group’s armed takeover” of the refuge and helped stage a traffic stop to arrest one of the militia’s leaders and key members who “planned to meet clandestinely outside the refuge.”
But the caption’s description of what occurred next doesn’t square with testimony and evidence presented during Astarita’s three-week trial.
The FBI caption said Finicum rammed his truck into the lead Hostage Rescue Team vehicle, trapping FBI agent John Neidert “under” Finicum’s truck.
But Finicum never struck another vehicle and Neidert jumped into a snowbank on the side of the road to avoid getting hit at the roadblock, according to video played during Astarita’s trial and testimony from Neidert and others.
Neidert testified that he had been standing on a small ladder to see over the hood of an FBI rental truck when he jumped off and narrowly escaped Finicum’s pickup.
Astarita testified that he also had been standing on a small ladder, next to another FBI truck parked at the roadblock.
Astarita said he ran to his left on the east side of the highway to avoid getting hit and watched Neidert run in the opposite direction.