Governor Candidate Urges Arrest Of Freemen
The fugitive “freemen” holed up at a rural home in Garfield County should be arrested and brought to justice, Democratic candidate for governor Chet Blaylock said Wednesday.
“The governor, attorney general and federal law enforcement officials should meet and coordinate a plan whereby those who have broken the law will be brought in to have their day in court,” Blaylock said in a telephone call to The Associated Press.
“The laws of Montana and the United States, if they are to mean anything, are to be enforced,” the former state senator from Laurel said.
Blaylock took exception to comments a day earlier by Militia of Montana co-founder John Trochmann, who told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that a recent public opinion poll might provide law enforcement authorities with public support for an armed confrontation with the fugitive anti-government protesters.
“I think it gives them a green light,” Trochmann said, commenting on a recent Lee Newspapers of Montana poll. It found that six of 10 respondents disapproved of law enforcement’s reluctance to arrest the fugitives who are holed up on a farm near Jordan.
“As a candidate for governor, I want to assure our local police, sheriffs, federal marshals - all law enforcement people - that they would have my full support to enforce the laws of Montana and the nation. Anarchy will not be tolerated, nor will arrests for lawlessness be unreasonably delayed,” Blaylock said.
At least nine armed fugitives are holed up on the rural property near Jordan. They have renamed it “Justice Township” and the people entrenched there wear badges and carry guns, the Great Falls Tribune reported Wednesday.
“That many people packing that many weapons is a potential danger to anybody involved,” said Kenneth Coulter, a former Garfield County commissioner whose farm is adjacent to neighbor Ralph Clark’s property where the fugitives have their enclave.
“They are well armed, from the reports we have, and they have stockpiled numerous weapons and ammunition. They have built shelters and dugouts so they can put up a stand,” Coulter told the Tribune.
The freemen confiscated the cameras of a TV crew and fired a warning shot over the head of a reporter several months ago.
“It is not escaping law enforcement’s attention,” said Montana Attorney General Joe Mazurek.
“We hope we can be successful in resolving and addressing that situation,” just as Montana authorities have successfully arrested and prosecuted other anti-government activists during 1995, Mazurek said.
Among those believed to be at Justice Township are fugitives Rodney Skurdal, Daniel E. Peterson, LeRoy Schweitzer and Dale Jacobi, all of whom are wanted for threatening public officials.
Skurdal, Peterson and Schweitzer also have been charged with criminal syndicalism by Garfield County Attorney Nick Murnion, who alleges the three have advocated violence for political gain.
“I am optimistic they can be arrested and violence can be avoided,” Murnion said, “but that will depend on their actions. I am hopeful 1996 will bring an end to it.”