This is a pretty balanced 1 hour PBS documentary about the events that led up to the cluster-bleep at Ruby Ridge Idaho,what happened once some Fed panicked and shot teenage Sammy Weaver's dog that was barking at him,and the final result. Pretty well balanced and has interviews with all of the main players except for Lon Horiuchi ([url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Horiuchi[/url]), a piece of semi-human garbage that I sincerely hope someone tracked down and gave him what he so richly deserved. Since he is not mentioned,I am assuming that he is unfortunately still alive and still in hiding.
AFAIK,the feral government has never identified the US Marshall that shot 14 year old Sammy Weaver in the back and killed him,either. I'm sure his name was mentioned in the wrongful death lawsuit the Weaver Family flied and won against the US Government,but it has never been made public.
The only other scab I have to pick with the producers is they mention "senior FBI officials gave the order to the snipers that they MUST fire if they saw a target." They should have named names. No,this doesn't justify Horiuchi murdering an innocent woman standing in a doorway and holding a baby in her arms,but the Feebs that gave the order deserve the same justice as the shooter. Horiuchi,as a proud cog in the machine that was the FBI would have never dared fire on a unarmed woman holding a baby without those orders.
For those of you too young to remember this,or who happened to be living on another planet when it happened,this was THE event that let the feral government come to an actual understanding that they had been pushing too far,and because of what they did at Ruby Ridge,they came DAMN close to kicking off another American revolution. The Feral agents shown live at the roadblocks,and even the Feeb officials interviewed on tv were terrified,and you could see it in their eyes.
This was after the Janet Reno-ordered attack on the Church full of loons at Waco,Texas,and even people who were not a part of what is called the "gun culture" or right-wing politics were getting disturbed at the violent criminal actions of our out of control government. Ruby Ridge came damn close to being One Step Too Far,and the government knew it and backed off.
All in all it is pretty balanced reporting,and is bound to be a real eye-opener for anyone who wasn't alive at that time.
It was aired this week on my local PBS station,and is most likely available in the archives of your PBS station,or can be viewed at the link.
A hour well-spent. Especially for those of you who don't remember it.