12-year-olds should be as safe as armed extremists

Local, state and federal authorities confronting an armed insurrection in Oregon are right to approach the situation cautiously.

To date, there’s no immediate and apparent risk to public safety, no one has been hurt, there are no hostages and a wildlife refuge isn’t critical infrastructure in the way a police station or reservoir is.

Federal agents, particularly the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have learned the lessons of deadly confrontation with extremists, which include the gunfight at Ruby Ridge in 1992 and the standoff with the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, in 1993.

Facing federal gun charges, Randy Weaver fled from prosecution and holed himself up at a camp in Idaho. Federal authorities circled the cabin and in the ensuing firefight, a U.S. marshal and Weaver’s 14-year-old son were killed. Weaver’s wife was also killed later in the standoff. Ultimately, Weaver surrendered, but blood had been spilled.

Just a year later, the ATF laid siege to the fortified compound of cult leader David Koresh in Waco, Texas. Again shots were fired. After 51 days, the FBI decided to end the stalemate and fired tear gas into the compound. The Branch Davidians set fire to the compound and 80 people, including 22 children died.

The two events — and the display of deadly force — added gasoline to the so-called “patriot” movement and were, in part, motivation for domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh’s deadly and cowardly 1995 attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Not only had the standoffs at Ruby Ridge and Waco led to unintended and likely unnecessary deaths, but they had also inspired other violent extremists.

Just as drone strikes and civilian casualties help to recruit violent extremists in other countries, violent clashes with federal authorities help to recruit new extremists to our domestic “militia” and “sovereign citizens” movements.

Hard lessons were learned, and now they are being applied to the armed insurgents — who have said they are willing to kill or die — who are occupying the Oregon bird sanctuary.

Arizona cattle rancher LaVoy Finicum talks to the media at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon on Tuesday. Jim Urquhart | Reuters

Arizona cattle rancher LaVoy Finicum talks to the media at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon on Tuesday. Jim Urquhart | Reuters

For someone far removed from the situation on the ground, the patient approach seems to be the right one, and we should all hope that this confrontation ends without bloodshed.

But we also must take a hard look and understand why many people are asking tough questions about whether the response would be the same if the terrorists holding the bird sanctuary were black, or Muslim, or Native American?

In a world of mass shootings, police carry a terrible burden in deciding how to respond to reports of a person with a gun.

While no two situations are exactly the same, there is ample evidence that minorities, and specifically black men and boys, cannot count on the disciplined approach law enforcement is bringing to the standoff in Oregon.

A program at the funeral service for Tamir Rice on Dec. 3, 2014. Aaron Josefczyk | Reuters

A program at the funeral service for Tamir Rice on Dec. 3, 2014. Aaron Josefczyk | Reuters

Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old child playing in a public park with a toy gun in Cleveland, Ohio, was shot dead by police just seconds after they arrived at the scene. As The New York Times editorialized, he “would be alive today had he been a white 12-year-old playing with a toy gun in just about any middle-class neighborhood in the country.”

John Crawford III, 22 and black, was shot to death by police in a Beavercreek, Ohio, Walmart. He was holding a BB gun in the store and talking on a cellphone.

And there’s the 16-year-old female black student in Spring Valley High School in South Carolina who was brutally thrown to the floor by a sheriff’s deputy because she refused to leave her math class.

There’s Eric Garner and the National Guard response to Ferguson, Mo., in which they called protestors “enemy forces.” And Sandra Bland, who died in police custody after a questionable arrest.

And on and on it goes.

Law enforcement authorities in Oregon facing violent and dangerous extremists — and make no mistake, the men who have taken over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge are both violent and extreme — have deployed new strategies, tactics and patience that are meant to protect lives.

When the siege ends, and hopefully it ends soon and without injury, these men who broke the law should be held accountable and face significant criminal charges for their actions.

Just as law enforcement learned from Ruby Ridge and Waco, it’s time we learn from Tamir Rice. Armed extremists bent on overthrowing the federal government should have more to fear from the police than a 12-year-old black boy.

Right now, they don’t.

David Farmer

About David Farmer

David Farmer is a political and media consultant in Portland, where he lives with his wife and two children. He was senior adviser to Democrat Mike Michaud’s campaign for governor and a longtime journalist. You can reach him at dfarmer14@hotmail.com.