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SALEM, Oregon – Father and son breeders who were at the center of a battle on public lands and were released from prison after receiving a Presidential pardon were greeted at home Wednesday in Oregon by parents and riders carrying American flags. A crowd of 100 people, including supporters from across the west coast, also helped welcome the Hammonds home – proudly displaying American flags on their trucks and placards praising President Trump, reports KOIN, affiliated with CBS Portland. Steven Hammond told reporters and supporters after he and his father Dwight came out of a private jet and fled into the arms of family members in the Burns town of the desert. .
Just 25 miles away is Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which was recaptured in 2016 by armed protesters angered by five-year jail sentences awarded to the Hammonds after being convicted of fires on federal lands .
Steven and Dwight Hammond are greeted by their family after landing their plane in Burns, Oregon , July 11, 2018.
KOIN
The stalemate lasted 41 days, ending when the occupation leaders Ammon and Ryan Bundy were arrested and LaVoy Finicum was killed by the authorities.
The occupiers, who believe that federal control of public lands violates the Constitution, insisted that the Hammonds were victims of excessive federal intervention.
Steven Hammond thanked Mr. Trump on Wednesday and the many people who wrote to him and his father while they were in jail.
"We have received thousands of letters, there is a moment when a letter means a lot," said Steven Hammond, his voice muffled in a video posted on Twitter by The Oregonian / OregonLive.
Some advocates of the environment see a pattern in how Mr. Trump approaches public lands, which make up nearly half of the western US, and have linked pardons to his position.
Under the leadership of Interior Minister Ryan Zinke, the administration has reduced the size of protected national monuments in Utah and is considering cuts to other sites. "Special interests are working with the Trump administration to dismantle the heritage of US public lands, and this will be seen as a victory in this effort," said spokesman Arran Robertson of environmental group Oregon Wild about the pardons .
Witnesses testified that a 2001 arson incident occurred shortly after Steven Hammond and his group of hunters illegally killed deer on the Federal Land Bureau's property. The fire burned 139 acres of public land and destroyed all evidence of gambling violations, the US Attorney's Office said.
The jury also convicted Steven Hammond of a 2006 fire that, according to prosecutors, began when he unleashed several fires, violating a ban on burning, to save his winter food after the lightning struck. triggered many fires.
The Federal Anti-Terrorism Act provides for mandatory five-year sentences for convictions in 2012. A federal judge said that such a long sentence would shock his conscience and would instead sentence Dwight Hammond to three months in prison and Steven Hammond to a year and a day.
In October 2015, a federal court of appeal ordered them to be felt as a mandatory sentence of imprisonment, and both returned to jail, which triggered the arrest. occupation of the federal wildlife refuge.
Nevada Breeder Cliven Bundy a well-known figure in the battle on public lands and father of Ammon and Ryan Bundy, praised the pardons, claiming that the Hammonds were victims of federal dominance .
"Now we finally have a president of the United States who pays attention to what is happening," said Bundy.
Everyone in Burns was not in favor of the return of the Hammonds, reports KOIN. Several people said that they should have served their five-year sentence for their arson conviction.
And Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of the Defenders of Wildlife group, retorted that the Hammonds had been convicted of arson, a serious crime.
"All that prompted President Trump to forgive them, we hope that he will not be seen as an encouragement to those who could use violence to seize federal property and threaten federal employees in the future." West, "said Clark.
