A tweet sent out under an account that purports to be that of the leader of a group of men who are occupying a wildlife refuge in Oregon caused a stir Wednesday, but according to reports, the tweet likely didn't come from Ammon Bundy, but someone using his name to run a Twitter account.
The tweet, which compares the occupation at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge by a group of armed men, to the struggles of Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks had Twitter users up in arms Wednesday.
"We are doing the same thing as Rosa Parks did. We are standing up against bad laws which dehumanize us and destroy our freedom."
The tweet moved people on social media to point out – at times pointedly – that Mr. Bundy and those involved in the occupation are no Mrs. Parks.
Parks was a black woman who refused to give her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus to a white man in December of 1955, to protest legally sanctioned discrimination in the Montgomery transit system. Parks' arrest for violating the city's segregation laws is considered one of the seminal moments in the American Civil Rights movement.
The Twitter account with Bundy's name and photo, was briefly suspended on Tuesday, but was back active on the site by late evening.
Tweets have been coming from the account since the refuge was occupied Saturday. Wednesday morning a tweet read, “Don’t point guns at us and we won’t point guns back. This can still end peacefully.”
The hashtag #CitizensForConstitutionalFreedom is being used in most of his tweets, referencing the name of the group who have now entered the fifth day of the occupation of the federal building.
Bundy has not denied that the tweets were sent from him, but a reporter with MSNBC said he was with Bundy at the times some of the tweets were sent and that Bundy did not send them.
Other tweets from Bundy's account have mentioned American values (“That is how America was started and we need to keep that tradition alive”); American Founding Father Thomas Paine (“… It is the duty of the patriot to protect its country from its government”); even the Greek playwright Aeschylus (“Death is softer by far than tyranny”).
The occupation began Saturday first as a protest in Burns, Ore., in support of father and son ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond who were sent to prison for setting fires on federal land. Bundy and more than a dozen supporters took over the building on the refuge near Burns, saying the group wouldn’t leave until the Hammonds are freed from federal prison and federal lands in the area are returned to locals.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was updated at 1:19 p.m. (ET) with information that an MSNBC reporter claims to have been with Bundy when the tweets were sent and that Bundy did not send them.
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