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Oregon Militiamen Mocked on Twitter


Ryan Bundy talks on the phone at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore., Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016.
Ryan Bundy talks on the phone at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore., Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016.

As a standoff between armed anti-government protesters and federal government officials continues to simmer in Oregon, social media was quick to mock the protesters.

The first hashtag go viral was #YallQaeda, with users comparing the cowboy-hat wearing gunmen to Islamic terror organizations.

Other hashtags like #VanillaISIS and #YeeHawd mocked the protesters in a similar vein.

The group of self-styled militiamen occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters in southern Oregon over the weekend to protest the jail sentences doled out to two men who were accused of burning federal land.

The group says it's protesting the abuse of power by the federal government.

Some Twitter users, including this supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, compared the lack of action to remove the Oregon gunmen with the 2014 police killing of a 12-year-old boy who had a toy gun.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story erroneously indicated the Tweet above was from the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders.

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