someone who's representing the fucking state
Did they say they were? Did they attempt to approach in the open, justly, with nothing to fear, as any servant of the people should do? No, they did not. They approached like an invading scout force and they shot the fucking dog who was giving away their position. They acted like an invasion, were treated as such, and used that as casus belli to besiege the Weavers.
They expected resistance if announced because of reports they had received from the ATF, which is why they planned to go in as covertly as possible, surprise them and arrest without having to use force. The dog compromised this and was killed. Degan probably hadn't even seen Harris before he was shot, Harris made no attempt to de-escalate, because he either chimped out over a friend's dog or was legitimately too retarded to even comprehend the situation and ended up making the situation much worse. I find it a bit disingenuous that anti-statists give Harris and the Weaver's a huge benefit of the doubt while assuming everyone on every agency involved was conspiring against them. This is the kind of conspiracy theory shit that leads to self-fulfilling prophecies.
Harris made no attempt to de-escalate
He was not obligated to make any attempt to de-escalate. These were men on private land with weapons, unnanounced, who had at that moment demonstrated that they were willing to kill.
while assuming everyone on every agency involved was conspiring against them
[–] 16383108? ago
right, he should've just taken the inevitable bullet, i'm sure it crossed his mind as it would yours to just give up and die right there