They hate the US government, and they're multiplying: the terrifying rise of 'sovereign citizens'

[malaise]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/15/sovereign-citizens-rightwing-terrorism-hate-us-government
<snip>

On 20 May 2010, a police officer pulled over a white Ohio minivan on Interstate 40, near West Memphis, Arkansas. Unbeknown to officer Bill Evans, the occupants of the car, Jerry Kane Jr, and his teenage son, Joseph Kane, were self-described “sovereign citizens”: members of a growing domestic extremist movement whose adherents reject the authority of federal, state and local law.

Kane, who traveled the country giving instructional seminars on debt evasion, had been posing as a pastor. Religious literature was laid out conspicuously for anyone who might peer into the van, and, when Evans ran the van’s plates, they came back registered to the House of God’s Prayer, an Ohio church. Also in the van, though Evans did not know it, were weapons Kane had bought at a Nevada gun show only days earlier.

Kane had been in a series of run-ins with law enforcement. After the most recent incident, a month earlier, he had decided that the next time a law enforcement officer bothered him would be the last.

Another officer patrolling nearby, sergeant Brandon Paudert, began to wonder why Evans was taking so long on a routine traffic stop. When he pulled up at the scene, he saw Evans and Kane speaking on the side of the highway. Evans handed him some puzzling paperwork that Kane had provided when asked for identification – vaguely official-looking documents filled with cryptic language. He examined the papers while Evans prepared to frisk Kane.

Suddenly, Jerry Kane turned and tackled Evans, knocking him down into a ditch. The younger Kane vaulted from the passenger side of the minivan and opened fire with an AK-47. Evans, an experienced officer who also served on the Swat team, was fatally wounded before he even drew his weapon. Paudert was struck down moments later while returning fire.

As the two officers bled out on the side of the highway, the Kanes jumped back in their van and sped off. A FedEx trucker who witnessed the shooting called 911.

[WePurrsevere]

1. This type of bs makes me so livid...

I was taught not to use the word 'hate' lightly, that hate towards people is wrong and 'love thy neighbor' was the way to live. Due to this teaching in my youth it's very rare that I use the word 'hate' directed at a specific group or human being but at this moment I can honestly say that I truly hate these types of ignorant murderous POS 'humans' (and there's a part of me that weeps because things are such that I feel this way).

[malaise]

4. Yep

although I don't weep about hating them

[WePurrsevere]

7. It's not 'them'...

that a part of me weeps for but rather that I've been put in a position that I feel that way... if that makes more sense.

[MineralMan]

2. They also make absolutely TERRIBLE neighbors.

Fortunately, the one who used to live next door has moved on to plague someone else.

[malaise]

3. I couldn't deal with that

[Initech]

5. Sovereign citizens domestic terrorists.

These people are the worst.

[FBaggins]

6. Let's not forget the "Article IV Free Inhabitants"

[justhanginon]

8. This takes the patience of a saint. I would not have made a good police officer.

Or a saint.

[malaise]

11. Seriously

they are lunatics

[Solly Mack]

9. K&R

[Proud Liberal Dem]

10. And yet

these people are usually treated with "kid gloves" by law enforcement when they're cornered (and often avoid heavy sentences when apprehended) whereas law enforcement seems too quick to the trigger to gun down African-Americans under a variety of circumstances. I have also noticed that "Sovereign Citizens" and militia types (along with associated gun and ammo sales) tend to explode under Democratic Presidents and recede under Republican Presidencies. These people are scary to me and, what's worse, they are not treated as serious potential threats to this country. While demanding profiling of Muslims and, now, immigrants under Trump, Republicans howl whenever anti-hate groups and concerned citizens take stock of these extreme right-wing terrorists in our midst.

[malaise]

12. I haven't seenwhat the Con said today but I'm betting he never mentioned

this group of cop killing terrorists

[Proud Liberal Dem]

13. No "hotline" for them I'm sure

speaking of that hotline, I noticed a local news story that specifically mentioned that an illegal immigrant who had been previously deported had been arrested for a drunk-driving incident that severely injured a young girl. I'm pretty sure that that detail wouldn't have been that important had Trump not been elected POTUS.

[YoungDemCA]

17. Maybe because a lot of police/sheriff's departments have been infiltrated by these terrorists.

And it's not limited to the South - not by a long shot.

The Klan and similar groups have engaged in a long-term strategy to take over law enforcement agencies around the country. They've been at it a long time, and they definitely seem to have had some success in that respect.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

18. I didn't think about that but that prospect is quite chilling

n/t

[Lee-Lee]

14. They are indeed a problem- sadly the growth right now is in minority groups subscribing

to the belief system.

When I was a deputy the SC nonsense was almost exclusively the domain of the white male. We had heard accounts of African-American groups but never saw any.

While still largely dominated by white males, the fastest growing branches in the last few years actually seem to be among African American majority groups.

The Moors or Moorish Nation are the most notable group in this trend:

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2011/‘sovereigns’-black

Regardless of who they are, sovereign citizens are universally scumbags. Most are not violent and are in fact cowards who hide behind their mounds of fake legal paperwork and pseudo-legal doublespeak but when it comes down to it will submit to the proper authority of the state. But enough are violent and drawn to the movement as an excuse to violence that you have to assume they all potentially are.

[Blue_Tires]

15. What the fuck are they pissed off about now?

The voted one of their own into the White House, and it's not like Trump has even paid lip service to gun control...

[Lee-Lee]

16. They stay pissed no matter who is in office

There is a whole myriad of variations on them, but they essentially believe that they as individuals are "sovereign" and that no government has any authority over them unless they voluntarily allow it.

Some believe there is a secret bank account in everybody Anericans name where they are used as collateral against a worldwide banking conspiracy and they write bogus checks drawn on that account.

There is a bunch in NC who think the state government is illegitimate since it was "restarted" after the Civil War and they have "re-established" the "legitimate" state and they hold their own elections and pay taxes to their group instead of the state.

There are some who only recognize the County Sheriff as a legitimate law enforcement official and see all other agencies as "criminal conspiracies". Those were the ones I dealt with mostly as a deputy and since I was a representative of the Sheriff they usually didn't give me as much trouble.


And so, so many more variations. They invent new ones every week it seems.