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Sorry to go off tangent, but please educate yourselves about Ruby Ridge. Even ultra-liberal PBS sided with the Weaver's.
Randy and Vicki Weaver moved to Ruby Ridge in Northern Idaho their children to get away from urban crime. Apparently that made them racist? Highlights from the PBS interview transcripts below:
Stuart Wright, Writer: I don't know that Randy Weaver knew at the time that they moved to Ruby Ridge…that they would be so close to the Aryan Nations compound, which was just 60 miles south. But they started showing up. At first it was purely social, they attended family picnics, those kinds of things.
Jess Walter, Writer: The Weavers were on this journey of religious discovery that had led them to isolate themselves and to live in a style they believed was Old Testament Christian. Christian Identity shared some of those tenets, so I think the Weavers saw some kinship in these people. But they also were really clear that they didn't want to join, that there were things they didn't believe, that they didn't agree with. Essentially, for the Weavers, the Aryan Nations was a chance to meet people, and you know, and to make friends.
Sara Weaver, Daughter: Being there as a kid, it was just like a family vacation. I think my Dad took us there out of curiosity. He was always up for a debate, always up for a discussion. Being the inquisitive person that he is, he was like "Sure! I'll go check it out."
Bill Morlin, Journalist: Every summer, Richard Richard Butler, Aryan Nations Founder: would host a gathering called the Aryan World Congress, which would attract fellow racists from all over the country.
Jim Botting, FBI Negotiator: Some people who spent time up with Richard Butler, Aryan Nations Founder: up at Hayden Lake would then go off in these splinter groups that became threats in their own way…But they were very violent, very anti-government, heavily armed, so the Aryan Nations was a cause for concern for those of us in law enforcement.
Bill Morlin, Journalist: Starting in the mid 80s, the feds wanted to know who's there, and what are they doing, and what are they planning on doing next? So by the time Randy Weaver started showing up at the compound, the Feds were listening.
Daniel Levitas, Writer: They had lots of events there designed to potentially recruit harder-core folks into the Aryan Nations, and it was at one of those meetings that Randy Weaver was spotted by an undercover federal informant.
Bill Morlin, Journalist: This guy got next to Randy Weaver and learned that he was clearly a racist. That he wanted to live his white separatist lifestyle in north Idaho, but that he was having trouble putting two nickels together and that he was interested in some income, and one thing led to another, and pretty soon, Randy Weaver agrees to saw off some shotguns.
Jess Walter, Writer: Everything shifts when Randy Weaver saws the barrels off those shotguns. He had now committed a federal crime. But it's so clear that Randy Weaver was not a guy up there sawing the barrels off shotguns and selling them. He only committed this act after talking to an ATF informant. But then the idea is, we can turn this guy.
Me: The undercover agent brought the shotguns (or just the barrels by some accounts) to Randy with the spots where he wanted them cut already marked on them so they would be just under the legal limit. He did not tell Randy that what he wanted done was illegal. This ruse was clearly entrapment. Randy Weaver was not selling illegal sawed of shotguns. He performed a gunsmithing service to the customers specifications.
Bill Morlin, Journalist: There's nothing unusual about that. It's the way the federal criminal justice system works. If they can take the information from, you know, suspect number one and lead them to suspects number two through ten, that's what they're going to do. They do that all the time.
Chuck Peterson, Defense Attorney: Here's the government, and they come to you and they say, "We've been watching you. We know that you sold a sawed-off shotgun. Now, if you won't work for us, if you won't help us to get inside the Aryan Nations and to get inside the white separatist movement, if you won't do those things for us, then we're going to arrest you, and we're going to place you in jail, and we're going to take away your property." And Randy Weaver said, "No."
Sara Weaver, Daughter: A couple posed with a broken down truck on the road near our house, and as Mom and Dad stopped to help them, they were thrown on their faces in the snow and frisked, and Dad was, you know, hauled off to jail.
Sara Weaver, Daughter: He had to post our home as bond and he told us "You know, if I lose my trial we lose our home." And he's like, "How am I going to win this?
Bill Morlin, Journalist: These are people that want to be left alone. And Randy's arrest just galvanized the Weaver's hatred of the federal government.
And you know the rest.
Randy and Vicki Weaver moved to Ruby Ridge in Northern Idaho their children to get away from urban crime. Apparently that made them racist? Highlights from the PBS interview transcripts below:
Stuart Wright, Writer: I don't know that Randy Weaver knew at the time that they moved to Ruby Ridge…that they would be so close to the Aryan Nations compound, which was just 60 miles south. But they started showing up. At first it was purely social, they attended family picnics, those kinds of things.
Jess Walter, Writer: The Weavers were on this journey of religious discovery that had led them to isolate themselves and to live in a style they believed was Old Testament Christian. Christian Identity shared some of those tenets, so I think the Weavers saw some kinship in these people. But they also were really clear that they didn't want to join, that there were things they didn't believe, that they didn't agree with. Essentially, for the Weavers, the Aryan Nations was a chance to meet people, and you know, and to make friends.
Sara Weaver, Daughter: Being there as a kid, it was just like a family vacation. I think my Dad took us there out of curiosity. He was always up for a debate, always up for a discussion. Being the inquisitive person that he is, he was like "Sure! I'll go check it out."
Bill Morlin, Journalist: Every summer, Richard Richard Butler, Aryan Nations Founder: would host a gathering called the Aryan World Congress, which would attract fellow racists from all over the country.
Jim Botting, FBI Negotiator: Some people who spent time up with Richard Butler, Aryan Nations Founder: up at Hayden Lake would then go off in these splinter groups that became threats in their own way…But they were very violent, very anti-government, heavily armed, so the Aryan Nations was a cause for concern for those of us in law enforcement.
Bill Morlin, Journalist: Starting in the mid 80s, the feds wanted to know who's there, and what are they doing, and what are they planning on doing next? So by the time Randy Weaver started showing up at the compound, the Feds were listening.
Daniel Levitas, Writer: They had lots of events there designed to potentially recruit harder-core folks into the Aryan Nations, and it was at one of those meetings that Randy Weaver was spotted by an undercover federal informant.
Bill Morlin, Journalist: This guy got next to Randy Weaver and learned that he was clearly a racist. That he wanted to live his white separatist lifestyle in north Idaho, but that he was having trouble putting two nickels together and that he was interested in some income, and one thing led to another, and pretty soon, Randy Weaver agrees to saw off some shotguns.
Jess Walter, Writer: Everything shifts when Randy Weaver saws the barrels off those shotguns. He had now committed a federal crime. But it's so clear that Randy Weaver was not a guy up there sawing the barrels off shotguns and selling them. He only committed this act after talking to an ATF informant. But then the idea is, we can turn this guy.
Me: The undercover agent brought the shotguns (or just the barrels by some accounts) to Randy with the spots where he wanted them cut already marked on them so they would be just under the legal limit. He did not tell Randy that what he wanted done was illegal. This ruse was clearly entrapment. Randy Weaver was not selling illegal sawed of shotguns. He performed a gunsmithing service to the customers specifications.
Bill Morlin, Journalist: There's nothing unusual about that. It's the way the federal criminal justice system works. If they can take the information from, you know, suspect number one and lead them to suspects number two through ten, that's what they're going to do. They do that all the time.
Chuck Peterson, Defense Attorney: Here's the government, and they come to you and they say, "We've been watching you. We know that you sold a sawed-off shotgun. Now, if you won't work for us, if you won't help us to get inside the Aryan Nations and to get inside the white separatist movement, if you won't do those things for us, then we're going to arrest you, and we're going to place you in jail, and we're going to take away your property." And Randy Weaver said, "No."
Sara Weaver, Daughter: A couple posed with a broken down truck on the road near our house, and as Mom and Dad stopped to help them, they were thrown on their faces in the snow and frisked, and Dad was, you know, hauled off to jail.
Sara Weaver, Daughter: He had to post our home as bond and he told us "You know, if I lose my trial we lose our home." And he's like, "How am I going to win this?
Bill Morlin, Journalist: These are people that want to be left alone. And Randy's arrest just galvanized the Weaver's hatred of the federal government.
And you know the rest.
