'Sovereign Citizens.' Seriously?
August 20, 2019 at 4:44 pm
(This post was last modified: August 20, 2019 at 4:47 pm by BrianSoddingBoru4.)
Ellen and I were at lunch yesterday when I saw my first sovereign citizen in his native habitat.
The place was nothing fancy, just convenient - one of those pay-as-you-get-it places, about midway between the house and her shop. We're just about finishing up when this bloke walks himself up to the counter and orders something. The clerk rings him and says '$12.42' (or whatever it was). He says, and I shit thee not, 'Oh, I don't have to pay - I'm a freeman on the land, and don't recognize for-profit corporations.' The poor kid at the counter looked a bit lost and explains that policy is for him to pay before he gets his food. The guy instantly demands to see the manager, who comes out and tries to tell this waterhead how things work, and the bloke starts going off on a rant about how common law is the only law and he owns whatever land he happens to be standing on at the moment and threatens to have the entire staff and all the customers arrested for trespassing. The manager asks him to leave several times [all during this, Ellen is wanting to leave, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world], and the guy keeps saying the same stuff over and over about his sovereign rights and his ownership, blah blah blah.
As you might expect, the police are called (by this time, sovereign boy has refused multiple invitations to vacate the premises and has seated himself at a table). The cops get there, and this dimwit gives them the same ration of nonsense he's been spewing for about twenty minutes. The Biggest Cop You've Ever Seen In Your Life calmly tells the man that, since the manager has asked him to leave, he's got 30 seconds to leave the café or he WILL be arrested for criminal trespass. The genius uses his 30 seconds to lecture the cop on the meaning of 'trespass', 'property' and...I guess we'll never know, because at this point, the cop bodily picked him up and half-walked, half-dragged him out the door. The last thing I heard before the door close behind them was something having to do with 'an illegal forced kidnapping'.
So, I took it upon myself to do a bit of research on the whole 'sovereign citizen' thing and found out that these people are uniformly stupid and uninformed about the laws. They don't seem to recognize any laws but the ones that suit them at the moment (they seem particularly vexed about driving and tax laws). They imagine that they have immunity from any civil or criminal charges, from traffic violations to murder for hire, they claim that the police are frauds and have no power to issue citations or effect arrests. When they are arrested, it is a 'kidnapping'. They seem to take great delight in giving cops a hard time (always a bad idea) and refusing to identify themselves. Also, I have been unable to find a single instance in NZ, the UK or the US were a 'sovereign citizen' defense was successful in court.
So, why do they do it? Are they delusional attention whores?
Anyone else ever had an encounter with one of these douchenozzles?
Boru
The place was nothing fancy, just convenient - one of those pay-as-you-get-it places, about midway between the house and her shop. We're just about finishing up when this bloke walks himself up to the counter and orders something. The clerk rings him and says '$12.42' (or whatever it was). He says, and I shit thee not, 'Oh, I don't have to pay - I'm a freeman on the land, and don't recognize for-profit corporations.' The poor kid at the counter looked a bit lost and explains that policy is for him to pay before he gets his food. The guy instantly demands to see the manager, who comes out and tries to tell this waterhead how things work, and the bloke starts going off on a rant about how common law is the only law and he owns whatever land he happens to be standing on at the moment and threatens to have the entire staff and all the customers arrested for trespassing. The manager asks him to leave several times [all during this, Ellen is wanting to leave, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world], and the guy keeps saying the same stuff over and over about his sovereign rights and his ownership, blah blah blah.
As you might expect, the police are called (by this time, sovereign boy has refused multiple invitations to vacate the premises and has seated himself at a table). The cops get there, and this dimwit gives them the same ration of nonsense he's been spewing for about twenty minutes. The Biggest Cop You've Ever Seen In Your Life calmly tells the man that, since the manager has asked him to leave, he's got 30 seconds to leave the café or he WILL be arrested for criminal trespass. The genius uses his 30 seconds to lecture the cop on the meaning of 'trespass', 'property' and...I guess we'll never know, because at this point, the cop bodily picked him up and half-walked, half-dragged him out the door. The last thing I heard before the door close behind them was something having to do with 'an illegal forced kidnapping'.
So, I took it upon myself to do a bit of research on the whole 'sovereign citizen' thing and found out that these people are uniformly stupid and uninformed about the laws. They don't seem to recognize any laws but the ones that suit them at the moment (they seem particularly vexed about driving and tax laws). They imagine that they have immunity from any civil or criminal charges, from traffic violations to murder for hire, they claim that the police are frauds and have no power to issue citations or effect arrests. When they are arrested, it is a 'kidnapping'. They seem to take great delight in giving cops a hard time (always a bad idea) and refusing to identify themselves. Also, I have been unable to find a single instance in NZ, the UK or the US were a 'sovereign citizen' defense was successful in court.
So, why do they do it? Are they delusional attention whores?
Anyone else ever had an encounter with one of these douchenozzles?
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
