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
It wasn't even his property, it's not like he was defending it. He acted like a retard, and won a retarded prize. What would you think if you were expecting to arrest people who you were told had been storing arms and were hostile to law enforcement, and then found out they already killed one of your co-workers? Compare that to the same initial situation, but instead of being killed, he was held at gunpoint, brought to the targets for a short time to explain the legal situation and then released. Kind of gives a different impression.
They were
Good goy, stay in the woods because the everyone in the big bad state is out to get you. No one will every worry about your sanity or the safety of anyone around you.
[–] 16382919? ago
that's what the ATF did at Waco with much the same result.