Hammonds Go To Jail

Most of the country has watched what has been happening in Oregon’s Harney County this week. With the militia coming in and taking over a government building. However, sadly that detracts from the real injustice that has and is occurring —— two ranchers headed to prison for burning less than 140 acres of BLM land.
Duane and Steve Hammond reported to prison on Monday. Their Congressman Greg Walden addressed the U.S. House in a passionate speech asking his colleagues to understand the frustration of rural communities with government over reach.
Walden: “What possible good can come from bankrupting a grandmother trying to keep her ranch together while her husband and her son sit in prison. What possible good? They will serve their sentences. There is nothing short of the clemency that the President only could offer that we could do. But we can change the law and we should. So that nobody is locked in like that for a situation like this — where a senior judge literally on the final day on the bench said, ‘This goes too far, it goes too far.’ They appealed that by the way — but lost but I believe the judge was right. We have to listen to the people. We have to understand why events like this are taking place in our communities.”