In case you were wondering, an armed militia is still occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon. And despite promises to meet today to discuss an exit plan, the group shows no signs of leaving (their meeting was canceled after they were barred from gathering on county-owned fairgrounds). The standoff between militia and law enforcement remained until this afternoon, when Kenneth Medenbach, 62, was arrested at a Safeway for “unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.”
The vehicle in question belonged to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; it was one of two that had been reported stolen when the occupation began, writes KTVZ. In a book by Robert L. Snow called Terrorists Among Us: The Militia Threat, Medenbach is quoted as saying that courts of law “have no authority over him because all judges belong to the state bar association, which he believes is unconstitutional.” It remains to be seen whether that holds up as a legal defense for stealing government property.
