I seriously doubt you'd ever see them charged with sedition unless shots were fired. They'll simply be charged with trespassing and sent on their way, much like other protests in circumstances like you described. But keep in mind I see A LOT of this fake-patriot pretend army crap around here and the waste it causes.
I'll pass on the true overgeneralization red herring argument (don't think that was your intent, but it looks that way on paper). You are talking about the difference between a normal protest in the public square versus the armed takeover of a facility on the basis that they believe the United States does not have authority over them and to prevent execution of the law. They have taken Federal property hostage, more or less, and made demands as though they were a sovereign nation. We have a lot of these militia type jackasses around here, and I've got no tolerance for their brand of crazy. The amount of resources they caused to be wasted in Central Texas due to their paranoia about Jade Helm hammered that home for me.
We are talking about an organized anti-government armed militia taking over a Federal property in order to force the government to remove its authority. That is not the same thing as unarmed protesters by sheer numbers blocking an intersection, though I believe even those can & should be broken up in many cases (i.e. blocking an Interstate, circumstances present a danger to the protesters or others, etc.).
You and I likely agree that armed protesters are not okay, and that a peaceful unarmed protest that converts to armed conflict or high potential for armed conflict is not okay. Unarmed peaceful protesting in the public square is a long tradition in the United States & consistent with 1st Amendment authority--I've got no problem there. Being peaceful & unarmed is critical to eliciting sympathy and building the political capital necessary to enact change. That is why King's approach worked so well. When the peaceful becomes hostile, laws are broken. It is not okay to threaten police. It is okay to refuse to comply, as that is consistent with peaceful protest (think of sit-ins as the example, or when protesters go limp to make their arrest difficult). Refusing to comply while kicking & punching is not. Threatening to attack or harm law enforcement officers is not. Depending on the circumstances, those broken laws could be related to rioting or related to sedition depending on circumstances & demands.
These jackasses are camped-out with a significant number of weapons and telling the government to bring it on. These are the same morons that bragged about having sniper rifles pointed at Federal officials when this whole BLM thing started taking on a life of its own some time back. Here's a quote from Ryan Payne, one of the current occupiers and who was previously involved with the Nevada BLM incident regarding their actions in Nevada: "We locked them down," Payne says. "We had counter-sniper positions on their sniper positions. We had at least one guy—sometimes two guys—per BLM agent in there. So, it was a complete tactical superiority. … If they made one wrong move, every single BLM agent in that camp would've died." In phone interviews from inside the occupied refuge building the Bundys said they are not looking to hurt anyone. But they would not rule out violence if police tried to remove them, they said. Ammon Bundy posted a video on his Facebook page calling on patriots from across the country to report to the refuge – with their weapons.
Does that sound like the same thing as protesters taking over an intersection or public square?
These militiamen seem to be forgetting a key fact: a force opposing government only has a measure of philosophical legitimacy if the people want their support. In this instance, the Hammonds simply want to turn themselves and finish serving their time, wanting nothing to do with this group at the refuge. Likewise, the nearby communities don't want anything to do with them. Other militia groups have told them to go fly a kite. These militiamen need to stop attempting to hijack the Hammond case in an attempt to stay relevant.
:-|:not:
