Well known anti-government activist Ammon Bundy has been arrested after he was taken into custody on trespassing charges at the Idaho Statehouse. According to the Ada County Jail Roster, he has since been released.
He was spotted being removed from the Statehouse early Tuesday evening and being wheeled out on a chair into a waiting patrol vehicle.
Bundy has been charged with trespassing as well as resisting and obstructing officers for refusing to leave the Lincoln Auditorium. Two other protesters, Aaron Von Schmidt, 42, of Coeur d’Alene, and Jill Watts, 38, of Nampa, have been charged with misdemeanor trespassing.
Their arrests follow a late Tuesday afternoon protest that broke out over non-credentialed members of the press sitting in the designated press area.
Others were going live on Facebook and some were wearing a lanyard around their neck that says “press.”
“I’m going to sit here and assert the right of the people to keep their government accountable by filming them, by recording them and reporting that back to the people,” Bundy told CBS2 prior to his arrest. “…which is what you’re doing, and you have every right to do that, and your company has every right to do that, but so do the people. And they will not separate the two because they have certified it, or they have somehow authorized it through a license.”
Bundy was eventually booked into the Ada County Jail.
Earlier in the day, Bryan Bowermaster, 33, was taken into custody and cited for trespassing but was later released, ISP says.
The protests occurred at a hearing of the House Judiciary and Rules Committee in Lincoln Auditorium to discuss bill about liability for business and schools in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tuesday marked the second straight day of interruptions at the Statehouse. On Monday, a large group of people pushed and shoved their way into the auditorium and even broke a door window.
Speaker of the House Scott Bedke is not shy about his frustration toward the disruptions.
“The events that have taken place over the past couple of days are unacceptable,” Bedke said in a news release. “It is important to protect the rights of all to participate in the process, not simply those who are the most aggressive and have the loudest voices. Unfortunately, a small group of individuals have disrupted what should be a deliberate and fair process. The end result has been chaotic and unproductive.”
State Representative Heather Scott told 670 KBOI said she believes the two days’ worth of frustration are thanks to COVID-19.
“Maybe from five months of being locked in and stressed out and not breathing enough oxygen from the mask, I don’t know,” she said. “I think people are frustrated with their government and with the process overall.”
But are the actions justified, 670 host Nate Shelman asked?
“I don’t think screaming in a police officer’s face is the best way to get your point across,” she said.
Brian Bowermaster, was also a guest on 670 KBOI and talked about his citation.
“All I did was exercise my right as a journalist to sit in the same position that other media were,” Bowermaster told Shelman.
