You're confusing us, KosherGirl. What's up?
Burns is almost solely populated by employees and officials for the forest service, state police, BLM and state parks. When the mills and forests were shut down, the feds moved in. So don't assume that the virulent pro-federal, anti-protest rhetoric you hear out of Burns is accurate or even representative of rural residents. It is not. You are hearing the feds being pumped up and supported by other feds.
One of the lies they liked to share was that the protesters were intimidating and threatening people. And yet NOT ONE PERSON has been able to name who they threatened, who did the threatening, or what the threat was. The FBI put out the lie that "militia" were following people around and scaring them, vandalizing, etc. Until they got busted dressing up as militia and doing just that. Now the scuttlebutt in Burns is that it's "their" issue and everybody else (except the feds, of course) should just go home and let it blow over. The other ridiculous thing put out there is that federal $$ is the "lifeblood" of the community, because they're employed by the government.
Yeah, because the government shut down their industry and stole their resources, and they had no choice. But most of the locals either left..and what are left are jackasses who put in for jobs there and now consider themselves "locals". And some are. There are families where there are 2-3 generations of government employees (because they give jobs to their families).
You see the problem?