The edited version is 8 minutes 3 seconds. The tape ran for 36:49 according to the FBI time stamp. I did not see Finicum go for a weapon. As I understand it, he was shot several times after falling down onto the snow. No word in the article saying how many times he was shot.
that's interesting if it was 36:49 and yet even the 'unedited' version here is 25 minutes, no?
at any rate, whether he had a weapon on him or not, I believe by all accounts that LaVoy Finicum was a very good and decent, God-fearing man with the best of intentions. He was passionate in his beliefs.
However, whether you have a donut, a pocket full of daiseys or an AK47 under your jacket, if you reach in to your jacket during a confrontation with amped up Israeli-trained cops guess what? you're dead as dirt within seconds.
Only a suicidal maniac or a looney tunes would a act like that in such a situation, sorry. That's my opinion and i'm sticking to it, and guess what? Ive had MANY contentious interactions with evil pig cops, and I'm still alive. and it is going to stay that way.
I get tired of these libertarian types always bashing the cops even when they clearly don't deserve it. their judgment and completely irrational bias is screwed in the head.
In retrospect all the other occupiers are actually lucky that the state police didn't open fire on the vehicle as it approached speeding towards the roadblock.
They all could have been killed. I'm not saying that would be justified, but it could have VERY easily occurred.
I believe by all accounts that LaVoy Finicum was a very good and decent, God-fearing man with the best of intentions. He was passionate in his beliefs.
True, by all accounts that I've seen, heard, or read.
I believe by all accounts that LaVoy Finicum was a very good and decent, God-fearing man with the best of intentions. He was passionate in his beliefs.
True, by all accounts that I've seen, heard, or read.
I will third that.
While I have criticisms of the occupation that are strategically & logistically based and have voiced the same here, when people nobly stand up for what they believe in and suffer for it, they still deserve full & complete respect. Especially from anyone who has, instead of lifting a finger for the cause, continues to be subjugated.
It's possible Finicum preferred to be shot & killed instead of arrested. Didn't he voice as much? If so, then his actions of getting out of the car and reaching in his jacket -- if that's what he did -- might have been intentional with the desired result achieved.
It's possible Finicum preferred to be shot & killed instead of arrested. Didn't he voice as much? If so, then his actions of getting out of the car and reaching in his jacket -- if that's what he did -- might have been intentional with the desired result achieved.
That's out there.
The fbi helicopter tape is so crappy that it's difficult to tell what happened; but it's also difficult for me to believe that a good man, with so much to live for, would consciously martyr himself for nothing.
If so, then his actions of getting out of the car and reaching in his jacket -- if that's what he did -- might have been intentional with the desired result achieved.
It did appear that he was reaching into his jacket, and if he was, he had to know that that was likely to answered with quick and extreme violence. When you are armed (or believed to be so), a gov helicopter is overhead, and a dozen police cars are chasing and blocking you thus making escape impossible, the only two choices are to surrender or risk being killed. His surrender wasn't quite peaceful and compliant enough for gov, so they killed him. That said, they might killed him anyway, even if he hadn't reached into his jacket.
It's possible Finicum preferred to be shot & killed instead of arrested. Didn't he voice as much? If so, then his actions of getting out of the car and reaching in his jacket -- if that's what he did -- might have been intentional with the desired result achieved.
Finicum, who is a father of 11, stated in an interview earlier this month that he refused to end up behind bars:
“I’m just not going to prison. Look at the stars. There’s no way I’m going to sit in a concrete cell where I can’t see the stars and roll out my bedroll on the ground. That’s just not going to happen. I want to be able to get up in the morning and throw my saddle on my horse and go check on my cows. It’s OK. I’ve lived a good life. God’s been gracious to me.”
“We all thought it would end, but not like this,” Finicum’s daughter, Challice Finicum Finch, told NBC News. “My dad did stress that they couldn’t pull a gun on [officers] unless they pulled a gun. They were all committed to not firing on federal agents.”
“My dad was such a good man, through and through,” said Arianna Finicum Brown to OregonLive. “He would never want to hurt somebody, but he does believe in defending freedom and he knew the risks involved.”