'I would like to clarify that the mandatory minimum sentencing was not invented for the Hammonds...'

[Lions_fan]

Yesterday at the Harney County town hall meeting a brave woman by the name of Isabelle stood up and told the people of Harney County a harsh truth they needed to hear.

I would like to clarify that the mandatory minimum sentencing was not invented for the Hammonds a few years ago. It has been around for 20 years and it was the Republicans who put them in place. For 20 years mostly innocent minorities men have been unjustly jailed for endless sentences. For 20 years the Democrats have been trying to get rid of mandatory sentences. So tell Greg Holder to go across the aisle and talk to his Democratic peers who will help him get rid of minimum mandatory sentencing because they are unfair and they are wrong but they were not invented for the Hammonds. And the Hammonds committed a crime and they got the sentence that wasn't appropriate for that crime. And it is very sad for everybody in America who has an unfair sentence, not just the Hammonds. Not just because they are your neighbors and you know them. And we need to start realizing that the rest of the world, especially the rest of the united states, people work hard, even if they're environmentalist, even if they're Democats, even it they're liberals, even if they love their national parks, yes they're national monuments. Even they get up in the morning work hard take care of their children. Raise their children. And serve their country. So instead of invading our wildlife refuge and then daring to come here in our public school while our children are practicing their sports you should just go home and hope somebody catches you on the way and you go to jail where you deserve to be!

Her speech starts at 1:10:38

[Lions_fan]

1. These people are the houseguest from hell

The militia left the refuge and drove to the town hall meeting and drove back to the refuge

Organizers of the meeting asked for questions or statements to come from only Harney County residents. Given the chance to speak, many turned their comments to Ammon Bundy and asked him to go home.

Their requests, like those of the Harney County sheriff and Harney County judge, did not seem to be swaying the Bundys.

“If we left now there would be nothing accomplished,” Ryan Bundy said as he filed out of the gym with the rest of the crowd.While sheriff’s deputies and Oregon state troopers were stationed in and outside the gym, no attempts were made to arrest the Bundys or any other of the occupiers. During the meeting, Harney County Sheriff David Ward said the FBI is handling the investigation of the occupation, and repeated his request for the Bundys and their bunch to go home to their families.

Looking up at Ammon Bundy, County Judge Steve Grasty, the county’s highest administrative official, offered to let him into his pickup and told Bundy he would drive him as far away as Utah. Bundy did not respond to the offer.

Bundy also did not take questions from reporters as he walked out of the meeting and got into a Subaru Outback with Nevada plates. As a woman talked into a walkie-talkie about the Bundys’ security detail, the station wagon went into the night, apparently back out to the refuge.

After the meeting, Grasty said he did not know why Bundy was not arrested.

“I think this was the ideal spot,” he said. “It needs to end.”

http://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/environment/3923642-151/burns-meeting-gets-tense-when-bundys-arrive

[MagickMuffin]

2. She is exactly right, Mandatory Sentencing was created to...

eliminate what the r's consider the "less desirable" by concocting this scheme. It was a way to purge voters from the rolls.

[Omaha Steve]

3. Thanks for posting

K&R!

OS

[FailureToCommunicate]

4. That lady gave a righteous rant!

[gratuitous]

5. Anybody remember that that was the original "protest" by the Bundy Gang?

The object of their protest keeps changing, like a 7-year-old who doesn't want to go to bed. Five more minutes. Hungry. Thirsty. Favorite show on. Two more minutes. Stomach hurts. One more minute. Favorite gum commercial.

These folks need a little closer acquaintance with the mandatory minimum sentences for terroristic activities.

[billhicks76]

6. I Agree But Whats Worse

Is that these people were charged with Terrorism statues. Thats complete bullshit. The government shouldnt be allowed to use terrorism laws against people they dont agree with. No Occupy protestors, drug dealers or conservative outlaws. The problem are these horrifically archaic and medieval sentencing laws. I recall when the Rainbow group in Michigan had there land seized because they had seven pot plants on it. Before forfeiture they tried to burn down some buildings they built because Uncle Sam was stealing their money and targeting them because they didnt like them. Everyone was killed and you dont hear about it like you do Waco or Idaho. Cops these days SOLE job on the highway is robbery...taking cash from anyone they can pull over and profile. Im surprised a revolt hasnt happened on our side yet. Its because OUR side talks a talk but never walks a walk...why is the Democratic Party allowing police to seize cash from people on the roads...100 times a minute.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. And she is wrong

mandatory minimums started to take shape in the 1960s with the federal sentencing commission. It is not a Republican project, but both parties own it.

The only thing she has right in that rant is that this was not done for the Hammonds. The origin of this truly are the Katzenbach and Brown commissions of the 1960s, the Itaca prison revolt and indeterminate sentencing.

Both Reagan and Clinton are two of the parents to this, as well as Tricky Dick and LBJ...

It is... as they say, a complicated story. We reached where we reached as a victory for tough on crime laws that BOTH parties came to agree upon to deal with the rebellions of the 1960s.