Ammon Bundy Branches Out Into 'Let Parents Starve Baby' Protests, For Freedom

Good Christ this story.

Professional rightwing grievance monger Ammon Bundy has created more chaos in Idaho, where he's running for governor. Since Saturday, Bundy supporters have been protesting outside St. Luke's Hospital in Boise, where a 10-month-old baby is being treated in an alleged child neglect case. The baby is the grandson of Bundy's favorite wingnut pastor and campaign consultant, Diego Rodriguez, who officiated at Bundy's big superspreader Easter jamboree in April 2020. The boy was hospitalized March 1 and found to be "suffering from severe malnourishment,” according to the Meridian Police Department; after his release, the baby's parents missed a follow-up appointment and couldn't be located, after which the police got involved.

More on that later, but first, let's look at the craziness yesterday, when St. Luke's went into lockdown for over an hour in response to a security threat related to the protests. Local TV station KTVB has the details:

"THIS IS NOT A DRILL," read an automated message sent to employees shortly after 1: 30 p.m. "An external threat has been identified at Boise hospital location and a lockdown is in progress."

Nurses, doctors, and other employees were instructed not to enter or exit the building, and not open the doors to anyone. Incoming ambulances carrying patients were diverted away from St. Luke's to Saint Alphonsus and other area hospitals.

People seeking medical attention were asked to go to other facilities, while the general public was urged to avoid the area entirely.

The lockdown ended around 3 p.m. local time; as of yet, hospital officials have not released details on the nature of the threat that led to the lockdown. Probably they were just frightened of American Patriotism, we bet. ( Pure speculation:  We wouldn't be surprised if it turns out one of Bundy's more excitable fans was waving around a Second Amendment Solution at hospital staff, or if one or more protesters tried to barge into the hospital to liberate the baby. Again, that'spurely a guess on our part. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding!)

Here's video, from KTVB-TV:

 www.youtube.com 

The protests have been organized by Bundy, who is on trial this week for trespassing at the Idaho Capitol building last spring in protest of the state's efforts to control the coronavirus pandemic. He actually posted a video Tuesday from the courthouse where the trial has been taking place, summoning his mob to show up at the hospital.

As the Idaho Statesman reports, the mess started last week, when, according to the baby's aunt, Miranda Chavoya, a pediatrician recommended the child go to the emergency room because he was unable to digest proteins and had lost weight. After he gained weight, the baby was released to his parents on March 4.

But last Friday, the baby's mother left a message saying she didn't feel well and would reschedule a doctor's appointment. The Meridian Police statement says that on Friday,

when the parents canceled the next follow-up appointment and could not be located, the Meridian Police were contacted and advised this child’s condition could lead to severe injury or even death if not treated.

Health and Welfare was able to contact the child’s father, who agreed to bring the child in for an examination, but then failed to show up.

The statement added that when police tried to check on the child at a home in Meridian, a Boise suburb, "the occupants were uncooperative and refused to let officers check on the child’s welfare." Police left to get a warrant, but when they returned, the parents and baby had left, as you would when the Police State is trying to keep your child alive. Eventually, the police found the father's car, did a traffic stop, and got the baby to the St. Luke's Hospital in Meridian, after which he was transferred to the Boise location.

Saturday, Ammon Bundy decided to do his part to make the situation better, so he took to social media, including YouTube, to call for people to show up at the hospital. In a mass text to Bundy's creatively named organization "People's Rights," Bundy called for “boots on the ground … to demand that the baby have family present.”

In a Twitter post Saturday, Bundy explained that the whole thing was tyranny , nothing short of tyranny :

Last night my very good friend Diego’s grandson was medically kidnapped because a medical practitioner called (child protective services) for a missed doctor appointment. If this happened to them, it could happen to you. We must stand against this medical tyranny.

We like the part where Bundy doesn't say a word about the baby being malnourished, the doctor's concerns that he might be at risk of dying, or the police's thwarted attempts to check on the baby's welfare. Because apparently if parents are OK with their child starving, that's no one's business but theirs.

After protesting at the hospital Saturday, Bundy and his campaign manager, Wendy Kay Whitaker, were arrested for trespassing when they refused to leave the hospital grounds.

In an interview with the Statesman , Bundy again insisted that "We have just become such a pro-police state," and that "That child does not belong to the state. That child belongs to their parents.”

If Bundy said anything about the baby's health to the Statesman , the paper must have left it out to make him seem like some kind of extremist.

On his blog, Diego Rodriguez has claimed CPS was simply out to get rich off "kidnapping" his grandson, insisting that

You always follow the money—when a child is kidnapped and put into CPS, CPS makes tens of thousands of $. Once they take a child from CPS into foster care, they get even more money!

This is CHILD TRAFFICKING—PURE AND SIMPLE!!!

He also referred to yesterday's lockdown at St. Luke's as an effort to "protect their child-trafficking ring" and that a "reputable source" informed him the state was "going to try to take Baby C___ right now and sneak him off into foster care today!"

He also insisted the baby was medically fine, but that his parents, who have seen him at the hospital where he's been "kidnapped" by the "child trafficking ring," say he is

not even the same child. He is unresponsive and lethargic and his spirit has completely changed. He is unrecognizable from the child he was when they stole him away from us.

Rodriguez also said that's only to be expected under the tyranny of the "'experts' at St. Lukes who harm and kill babies all the time," which we suppose must be a rant about abortions, which are the only things doctors do.

Also on the blog, which we're not linking to for fairly obvious reasons, Rodriguez has posted the names and photos of two Meridian Police officers, and of an Idaho CPS social worker, who are identified as "The Main People Responsible for Baby C___'s Kidnapping." Just in case anyone finds that information useful.

In a social media post today, Bundy — or perhaps Rodriguez — called for continued protests at the hospital, and also said that protests would be held at the homes of the social worker and one of the officers, so that's nice, we're sure nothing will get out of hand.

A crowdfunding campaign has raised some $58,000 for the family so far, which should at least help them through this time of oppression by tyrants. The original goal was $50,000 but once that was met, the organizer increased it to $75,000, "now that we know this will be a prolonged fight," you see.

[ Idaho Statesman / KTVB-TV / Idaho Statesman ]

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