The protesters where peaceful, they posed no threat to anyone all they wanted was dialog.

The Government in this particular situation had no reason to use force so they created a situation where they felt it would provoke a violent reaction from the protesters justifying a mass killing. It did not work out that way so they did some killing anyways.

The reality is this, The protesters were non violent, just bearing arms does not constitute an escalation of force.

The OSP and FBI knew exactly where a group of non-violent protesters where headed; to John Day for a pre arranged meeting with a sheriff there, they could have just followed them and then contacted them peacefully.

The problem is the FBI and OSP did not want a peaceful resolution, they wanted to send a message, which is not justification for deadly force...