Sovereign Citizens: Incoherent Evidence of the Eroding Rule of Law

Sovereign Citizens are not recent arrivals from another planet. They’ve been around for several decades. Today though, their numbers seem to be increasing.

If you don’t think so, do a search on YouTube by entering “Sovereign Citizens” (SC) in the Search field and view the proliferation of recent posts featuring a group that’s been around for several decades, but is more visible today.

The SCs tend to be among the uneducated, poorer than most, and pugnaciously independent members of society. All races and genders are represented. And most all are hostile to law enforcement in general.

Here’s how Wikipedia describes them:

“The sovereign citizen movement (also SovCit movement or SovCits) is a loose group of litigants, anti-government activists, tax protesters, financial scammers, and conspiracy theorists based mainly in the United States. Sovereign citizens have their own pseudolegal belief system based on misinterpretations of common law and claim to not be subject to any government statutes, unless they consent to them. The movement, which appeared in the early 1970s, is American in origin and exists primarily in the United States, though it has counterparts in other countries…The sovereign citizen phenomenon is one of the main contemporary sources of pseudolaw. Sovereign citizens believe that courts have no jurisdiction over people and that the use of certain procedures (such as writing specific phrases on bills they do not want to pay) and loopholes can make one immune from government laws and regulations. They also regard most forms of taxation as illegitimate and reject Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, and vehicle registration. Sovereign citizen arguments have no basis in law and have never been successful in any court.

The movement may appeal to people facing financial or legal difficulties or wishing to resist perceived government oppression. As a result, it has grown significantly during times of economic or social crisis. Most schemes promoted by sovereign citizens are ways to avoid paying taxes, ignore laws, eliminate debts, or extract money from the government. American sovereign citizens claim that the United States federal government is illegitimate.”

If you find yourself driving behind a vehicle with the rear license plate like the two, the person behind the wheel is likely to be a self-proclaimed Sovereign Citizen.

If you have friends or family members who are police officers (city, county, or state level) they likely know all about Sovereign Citizens (SCs).

YouTube often posts police cam encounters where officers face SCs who are well to moderately-well rehearsed in explaining why they are not subject to the normal legal vehicular operational requirements. They’re special. Often, they drive with no license, no insurance, no safety inspections, no registration, etc. They are mere “travelers”.

Video-taped confrontations between SC and law enforcement can be long and tedious (when the SC is well rehearsed in regurgitating SC rights), aggravated (when the SC is under the influence of alcohol or drugs), and/or physical (when the SC resists arrest and may trigger a road chase by trying to escape from the police).

Support Canada Free Press

“So what? What is relevant regarding this growing phenomenon? The Sovereign Citizen community is obviously replete with looney tunes.”

YouTube videos of court scenes when SC defendants stand before a judge claiming immunity for reasons that include them not being the actual defendant, but only someone representing the actual defendant, even when both are one and the same. It is bizarre.

Some judges briefly hear SC explanations of faux-immunity and bluntly discount it. Others, apparently with more time to spare, enjoy sparing with the SC defendant in an intellectual joust with tongue-in-cheek.

Now, the question you may be asking about all this is: “So what? What is relevant regarding this growing phenomenon? The Sovereign Citizen community is obviously replete with looney tunes.”

Good question.

Ask yourself this:

How does the attitude of Sovereign Citizens toward The Law differ from the behaviors of: George Soros funded prosecutors hunting Trump; or the U.S. Federal Government’s open policy along the Southern border; or the inability of the current FBI Director to immediately, clearly and thoroughly answer questions posed by Republican Senators by defaulting to “I don’t personally know that; but I’ll get back to you on that”; as well as the daily looney tune obfuscations of the current moronic White House Press Secretary?

Just to name a few.

VIEW Comments