In part because the Feds had to back down last time (the Cliven Bundy thing), which the militias counted as a "win".
I'd very much like to see them take an unequivocal "loss" on this one, and nip this shit in the bud.
Yea, another proud moment in the fight against domestic extremism. No one got killed so I guess it's a win in someone's book. But the image of white ranchers holding guns and screaming in the faces of police officers...and those officers just standing there taking it still sticks with me. I couldn't fathom another situation like that in almost any other circumstance. What I would normally love to see (police officers exercising maximum restraint) somehow becomes tainted because I believe the reason for showing that restraint isn't respect for the law or the love of human life. It's because politically they don't disagree with them or at least are unwilling to police "their own kind." How can you have any justice in this country when enforcement is so goddamn arbitrary. In almost all other instances of being within 500 feet of an officer who needs to deal with you, carrying a loaded weapon and/or being hostile is fucking death sentence.
There's no price to paid in blood for waiting this time around, the lack of split second decision pretty much means everything. If they do shoot down the militia folks, it must by definition be a premeditated kill... which one DOES see in the inner cities to an extent (and that of course is horrific and should not be)... but that doesn't actually change the current situation, which ought to be figured out on its own strategic merits rather than decided by what has gone on in other situations.
The strategy seems pretty straightforward to me. You tell them to put down their guns and peaceably disband and take them all into custody. They don't require special consideration unless they're actually ready to shoot at law enforcement officers. And the playbook for that situation is pretty clear cut already.
Put another way. Why do these guys deserve special treatment? Why are they not being treated, at a minimum, like your average everyday criminal. Forget armed vigilante, armed separatist movement, armed terrorist or any of the other more exotic labels that totally apply to them.