B.J. Soper speaks into a megaphone. Protesters with the Pacific Patriots Network faced a counter protest of Harney County residents during the occupation in Burns in January 2016.
Amanda Peacher / OPB
OPB reporter Conrad Wilson and The Guardian reporter Sam Levin recap the victories and losses for the government and occupiers in the first week of the Malheur occupation trial.
Then we return to Harney County with OPB reporter Amanda Peacher. She talks to county Judge Steve Grasty, who says the community is ready to move on.
"We want to move ahead." Grasty says Ammon Bundy never belonged in Harney County, and deserves to be forgotten. "He came in, used us, used the Hammonds, used our community."
Not everyone agrees.
"I hope that what comes out of this is more people will understand what our rights are," says Harney County resident Chris Briels about the trial. He says the Bundys' message of government overreach was right on the mark. "It's not radical, not weird, not strange."
But former Bureau of Land Management employee Liz Appleman says she wants to see the occupiers serve time for the takeover.
"I really don't think they should spend the rest of their lives in jail...but they need to pay a price...the laws are here for a reason."
Related: An Occupation In Eastern Oregon
Burns Paiute councilman Jarvis Kennedy is frustrated that the occupiers aren't being charged for disturbing a federally-protected archeological site. The refuge sits on ancient tribal land.
"It's kind of upsetting...they dug holes for their outhouses, and for their trash and they made a road."
Briels says it's hard to figure out how to move on and resolve differences. "They never teach you how to deal with these things, so people cope in different ways."
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