This lawmaker compared dead Oregon occupier LaVoy Finicum to Moses and Jesus

By Niraj Chokshi and Sarah Larimer January 27

A Nevada state lawmaker invoked biblical figures after law enforcement action aimed at the occupiers of a federal wildlife refuge ended with several people arrested and one killed in eastern Oregon.

Here’s what Assemblywoman Shelly Shelton wrote in a Facebook message after LaVoy Finicum’s death:

In any given generation there are men who are willing to stand for what they believe. Most of the time they are demonized and the uninformed are made to believe they are criminals.

From Moses who killed an Egyptian for abusing his people, to Jesus who died on a cross as a condemned criminal, many of those who operate outside the box and promote love and justice over the current form of government are treated as outcasts and many times murdered.

Today we were reminded that the power of evil is still alive and well as LaVoy Finicum was gunned down and murdered in Oregon. LaVoy was a man who had documented the suffering to which he and his family had been subjected, via the heavy hand of the government, through his writings and his videos.

You can read the full post, which is embedded below, here.

Finicum — a member of the armed group that had taken control of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge — was killed in Tuesday’s law-enforcement operation in Oregon, though the details of his death remain somewhat murky. Eight others were arrested in two states.

“Civil disobedience is not a death sentence,” Shelton wrote in a statement emailed to The Post on Wednesday. “The mere act of protesting in any form requires a location. A nearly unused building on public land could arguably be preferable to tying up public streets.

“Through two years of these protests, starting with the Bundy Ranch, not a single shot has been fired by protesters, any sane person would realize they just want to be heard. Their history shows they are a threat to no one.”

In 2014, Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher and father Ammon and Ryan Bundy, two leaders of the current standoff, led a confrontation with the federal Bureau of Land Management over non-payment of cattle grazing fees.

What we know about the eight people who were arrested

The occupied federal building in rural Oregon

What we know about LaVoy Finicum, an Arizona rancher