Our View: Don't blame FBI for death in Oregon

• Loss of life is regrettable, but law enforcement showed great restraint
• Those who engaged in an armed takeover of public land are not heroes
• Our system has legal and political processes for redressing grievances

The loss of life in Oregon is a tragedy, but it would be wrong to blame federal officers. Those who began a lawless standoff Jan. 2 by occupying Malheur National Wildlife Refuge are responsible.

Federal officers showed so much restraint during the armed occupation of federal property that area residents were losing patience.

In our country, there are legal and political processes for redressing grievances. Taking up arms and commandeering federal buildings represents a betrayal of the system of government that keeps us all safe and protects the liberty of all Americans.

The occupiers were not heroes.

Our View: Treat Oregon militia like the thugs they are

We sympathize with the family of Arizonan LaVoy Finicum, who was killed in a confrontation with the FBI after a group of occupiers left the refuge to attend a meeting. He was shot by law enforcement officers, and he had previously made statements suggesting he was prepared to die in the standoff.

Anti-government activists Ammon and Ryan Bundy and others were arrested and charged with felonies. One man in Arizona turned himself in.

Finicum and the others risked their lives by becoming part of a lawless act of armed aggression.

The occupation is not over. Some remain on the refuge and vow to die rather than leave, according to reports. Others reportedly did leave peacefully.

Make no mistake: this was not a legitimate airing of grievances. It was a lawless, armed takeover.

There are questions about the management of federal lands in the west. Some of those privileged to use that land to graze livestock feel they are not fairly treated. Others who value the land for recreation and conservation also disagree with federal land management practices – usually for different reasons.

These concerns and conflicts deserve to be discussed in the legal and political channels open to all Americans.

Those who engage in armed insurrection should not be surprised when law enforcement officers move against them.

The situation that had developed in the weeks’ long occupation of the bird sanctuary bordered on ridiculous, in addition to being dangerous.

A letter sent Friday to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch from Charlotte Roderique, chair of the Burns Paiute Tribe, pointed to the "constant interaction" between the occupiers and supporters – including a recent FedEx delivery to those holding federal land hostage.

Allowing such access to lawbreakers demonstrates excessive restraint by law enforcement.

The refuge is in the heart the tribe's ancestral territory, which means the Burns Paiute people could make a more convincing argument for demanding control of land they consider sacred.

Instead, they wanted the federal government to do its job and protect both public property and the valuable resources it holds.

One of the occupied buildings has more than “4,000 tribal artifacts, site records, maps and confidential documents related to the tribe's cultural resources," the letter to Lynch says.

“Allowing the militants free passage from the refuge means that our cultural patrimony is unprotected and easily transported outside the refuge for sale or misappropriation by the militants,” Roderique writes.

Montini: Arizona militant did NOT die for freedom

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown had also called for the federal government to resolve the issue “without further delay.”

The FBI issued a statement last week acknowledging the standoff caused “tremendous disruption and hardship" for the community and stressing the importance of a “peaceful resolution."

Stopping a vehicle in which some of the leaders of the insurrection were traveling resulted in gunfire. The details will be sorted and parsed for weeks to come.

But one thing is clear now: Civil disobedience has a long and respected history as a legitimate form of protest, holding federal property hostage at gunpoint does not. Nor should it.

Those engaged in this armed standoff are not heroes. The officers who confronted them are not villains.