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Oregon standoff leader compares effort to Rosa Parks

 

The leader of the standoff in Oregon on Wednesday compared the ranchers' occupation of a federal wildlife refuge to the civil rights battle waged by Rosa Parks.

 

The leader of the standoff in Oregon on Wednesday compared the ranchers' occupation of a federal wildlife refuge to the civil rights battle waged by Rosa Parks.

Ammon Bundy, whose group Citizens for Constitutional Freedom took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday, has taken his battle to Twitter, which briefly shut down his account Tuesday. The @Ammon_Bundy account re-emerged a couple hours later.

"We are doing the same thing as Rosa Parks did," Bundy tweeted early Wednesday. "We are standing up against bad laws which dehumanize us and destroy our freedom."

The armed occupation of eastern Oregon refuge reached a fifth day Wednesday with no end in sight to the conflict that started as a peaceful protest in support of two local ranchers sent to prison for setting fires on federal land. Bundy and more than a dozen supporters took over a bunkhouse and say they won't leave until Dwight and Steven Hammond are freed from federal prison.

 

Bundy also wants federally owned land in Harney County returned to the people who live here, saying his group was sifting through property records to find instances of federal officials seizing land from private owners.

"This isn't going to end until we get our public lands back," Bundy tweeted Wednesday.

Internet navigation to Bundy's Twitter page on Tuesday afternoon yielded a message that read, simply: "This account has been suspended."

Twitter explains on its web page that it suspends accounts when they are believed to be spam, if they are hacked or compromised or if they are engaging in abuse behavior, such as "sending threats to others."

The social media site did not immediately respond to a query regarding why the account was suspended. and the account returned a short time later.

Contributing: Melanie Eversley

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