Police and Public Officials are Being Trained "to Combat Sovereigns, Zealots Who Refuse to Recognize Government Authority"
Police teach tactics for handling 'sovereign citizens'
The
FBI classifies such people, who refuse to recognize government
authority in virtually any form, as part of a domestic terrorist
movement.
April 5, 2013
Los Angeles Times - With his shaggy hair, bushy mustache and obstinate ways, Jeffrey Allen Wright was well known to sheriff's deputies in Santa Rosa County, Fla. Wright, 55, drove around with a phony license plate. When stopped, he refused to produce a driver's license. Once he threatened to sue a deputy who pulled him over.
After
he was fined for traffic offenses in September, Wright paid with
counterfeit money orders. When deputies served warrants for felony
counterfeiting March 8, Wright barricaded himself in his garage and
declared that he would not be "a servant of the king."
He broke out windows with a handgun, then pointed the weapon at officers, police said. Three deputies fired, killing Wright.
When Det. Rob Finch of the Greensboro police department heard about the incident, two words came to mind: sovereign citizen.
Finch teaches police and public officials around the country how to deal with self-described "sovereign citizens" like Wright. Finch and his partner, Det. Kory Flowers, have trained nearly 15,000 police and 5,000 public officials to combat sovereigns, zealots who refuse to recognize government authority in virtually any form.
Violent confrontations are rare, but the FBI says at least six police officers have been killed by sovereigns since 2000. A man tied to the movement shot and killed a California Highway Patrol officer who stopped him in Contra Costa County last year. A responding officer shot and killed the assailant.
The agency calls sovereigns — who number between 100,000 and 300,000 — a "domestic terrorist movement."
This time of year has federal authorities on alert, since a central tenet of the sovereigns movement is that its adherents believe they owe no income taxes.
Sovereigns assert that the U.S. Treasury has set up a secret money account for every American, which can be reclaimed through a bizarre set of legal filings known as redemption. They say everything from taxes to traffic tickets can be disposed of by drawing on the secret Treasury accounts through elaborate legal claims and mountains of paperwork.
Many sovereigns file invoices with police or judges, demanding hundreds of dollars an hour for time spent stopped by officers or when in court to answer charges.
Finch, 31, said his training sessions began after several sovereigns pulled over by Greensboro police in 2008 and 2009 refused to produce driver's licenses. They demanded that officers recite oaths of office and fill out long questionnaires.
They teach police to recognize sovereigns by their convoluted legal jargon and "mouthy" defiance.
Finch said he instructs officers to ignore paperwork other than license and registration.
In Florida, police approached Wright carefully because he had told them in past encounters that he was not subject to police authority. Wright paid his taxes with a handwritten "coupon for payment," said Deputy Richard Aloy of the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Department. He had renounced his U.S. citizenship.
Many sovereigns — including the father-son team in the Arkansas shooting — hold seminars of their own in which they charge for lessons on redemption and tax avoidance.
But sovereigns continue to file suits and liens, hoping to claim property and damages, Finch said.
At one meeting Finch attended, a charismatic sovereign citizen told a rapt audience that U.S. currency has no value. But he also explained how to redeem millions of dollars from secret U.S. Treasury accounts, and how to use the courts to evade government control and taxes.
Afterward, Finch said, he asked the man what he did for a living. He was a U.S. Postal Service worker.
Finch asked how he justified working for a government he considered illegitimate.
Esclarmonde - The following article is purportedly from the November 2000 edition of The Firing Line. It was handed to me by a retired policeman and member of the California Rifle and Pistol Association. In light of what is happening in Arizona and reported elsewhere on RMN, this story takes on a "critical mass" kind of perspective.
I am unashamed to tell you I am weeping as I write this story.
Last August, Rodney William Ansell, the rugged Aussie whose real life exploits inspired the Crocodile Dundee movies, died in a shootout with Australian police who had come (to confiscate his unregistered firearms. Oh, you didn't read about it in our ‘free’ press? That's cause it never appeared.
A police sergeant was also killed in the incident; the number of "peace officers" injured while invading old 'Croc' in his natural domain is unknown, but likely he took down several. I don't mean to imply glee over the death and possible additional injuries; after all, they were "just doing their job" like the obedient Nazi's tried at Nuremburg.
Ansell had been named 1988 Australian Man of the Year for inspiring the movie and putting Australia on the Tourism Map." Of particular interest to us here in the tourism dependent desert, Ansell was probably responsible for hundreds of millions of increased tourism dollars flowing into his beloved country. This is how his country repaid him. Because you see, in today's world, no good deed goes unpunished and no bad deed un-rewarded. After all, Janet Reno was the laughingstock of DA's nation-wide for her inept to outright unlawful performance in Florida. She is now "our-Attorney General (in addition to Fidel Castro's).
NO SEARCH WARRANT NEEDED FOR DOOR-TO-DOOR HOME INVASION SEARCHES. GUN REGISTRATION AND LICENSES USED TO TRACK NON-COM-PLIERS.
What motivated this shooting? In 1996, Australia adopted draconian gun control laws banning 60% of all firearms and requiring registration of all firearms and licensing of gun owners. As a result, Rod Ansell believed that police were coming to confiscate his unregistered firearms. In Austrailia today, police do not need a search warrant to enter your house and search for guns. Police can search door-to-door looking for un-surrendered weapons in their gun buyback program. They have been using previous gun registration and license lists to check for non-compliance and confiscate now illegal firearms.
The rush to draft stringent gun controls in Australia, in a curious foreshadowing of our own post-Columbine experience, began after, in 1996, a crazed gunman shot 35 people. Australians were shocked, and the government reacted quickly. Draconian gun legislation was passed in the heat of the moment.
Notes former California State Senator H.L. Richardson: "They outlawed every semi-auto, even those pretty duck guns, pump shotguns and semi-auto hunting rifles. "They didn't miss a one. In today's Australia, it is illegal for any citizen except officers to own even .22's and sporting shotguns designed for duck hunting."
The result? As in Great Britain, crime has escalated beyond belief! In the year following implementation of the law, Australia experienced a 44% increase in armed robberies, 8.6% increase in assaults and a ~ increase in homicides. In the state of Victoria there was a 300% increase in firearm homicides!!!l In South Australia, robberies increased 58%. Two years after the ban, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Armed robberies are up 73% and assaults are up 17%. By comparison, in the 25 years before the ban, Australia had a steady decrease both in firearm homicides and robberies. It is now a haven heaven for every criminal creep who knows there's little chance law-abiding citizens can defend themselves. The police can't prevent crime or protect & serve you until it's too late - dead men and women can't dial 911.
OMINOUSLY, THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA PARALLELS THAT OF THE U.S.
Ominously, the history of Australia in many ways parallels that of the U.S. In the 1860's it had pioneering settlers like our own Western migration. In World War I and II, it fought with the Allies. Australia remained subject to Great Britain until 1986, when the last ties with the U.K. were dissolved. With just 19 million people, Australia has an impressive fauna including plenty of varmints like marsupials and dingoes which wreak havoc on ranchers' livestock. Yet hunting and Varmint eradication is prohibited for all but a handful of rich and connected Australians.
BANDITS, OF COURSE KEPT THEIR GUNS. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE CALLED BANDITS!
Bandits, of course, thumbed their noses at the new laws and kept their guns. As in America, by definition, only the law-abiding obey the law. The leftist Clinton/Blair-styte Australian government has even banned many types of knives. No doubt cricket bats are next.
In Australia today, self and family protection is not considered a valid reason to own a firearm. Australians used to be like Americans. They recognized the value of firearms. That is, until recently. In Australia, a basic human right has been outlawed and a noble way of life extinguished.
Now, in post-Columbine America, a replay of the Australian gun control drive is under way. It succeeded Down Under. Please, don't tell me "it can't happen here, this is America"
Good-bye and God-Bless you Rod “Crocodile” Ansell. I only wish I could have met you before your legal murder.
Special thanks to Miguel Faria Jr., M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, for providing the information and documentation that made this story possible.
NOTE: Unfortunately, the author's name was not included. I respectfully submit the article in full respect of his/her work and knowing very much that they just want to 'get the word out'.
National Police Misconduct Reporting Project
He broke out windows with a handgun, then pointed the weapon at officers, police said. Three deputies fired, killing Wright.
When Det. Rob Finch of the Greensboro police department heard about the incident, two words came to mind: sovereign citizen.
Finch teaches police and public officials around the country how to deal with self-described "sovereign citizens" like Wright. Finch and his partner, Det. Kory Flowers, have trained nearly 15,000 police and 5,000 public officials to combat sovereigns, zealots who refuse to recognize government authority in virtually any form.
Violent confrontations are rare, but the FBI says at least six police officers have been killed by sovereigns since 2000. A man tied to the movement shot and killed a California Highway Patrol officer who stopped him in Contra Costa County last year. A responding officer shot and killed the assailant.
The agency calls sovereigns — who number between 100,000 and 300,000 — a "domestic terrorist movement."
This time of year has federal authorities on alert, since a central tenet of the sovereigns movement is that its adherents believe they owe no income taxes.
Sovereigns assert that the U.S. Treasury has set up a secret money account for every American, which can be reclaimed through a bizarre set of legal filings known as redemption. They say everything from taxes to traffic tickets can be disposed of by drawing on the secret Treasury accounts through elaborate legal claims and mountains of paperwork.
Many sovereigns file invoices with police or judges, demanding hundreds of dollars an hour for time spent stopped by officers or when in court to answer charges.
Finch, 31, said his training sessions began after several sovereigns pulled over by Greensboro police in 2008 and 2009 refused to produce driver's licenses. They demanded that officers recite oaths of office and fill out long questionnaires.
"To them, a police officer is just a man in a Halloween costume," Finch said.Other police departments began requesting their eight-hour seminars. Finch and Flowers now train agents of the FBI, DEA, ATF and Homeland Security — as well as district attorneys, clerks of court, judges and registrars nationwide. Finch says they are the only officers in the country who offer such street-level training.
They teach police to recognize sovereigns by their convoluted legal jargon and "mouthy" defiance.
"Sovereign citizens are more likely not to obey their commands and more likely to commit violence during a traffic stop," Finch said.Finch and Flowers often cite the 2010 deaths of two police officers in West Memphis, Ark., who were shot by a father-son sovereign team during a traffic stop for a bogus license plate. One officer had become distracted by a thick sheaf of papers thrust at him by one of the sovereigns.
Finch said he instructs officers to ignore paperwork other than license and registration.
"Your antennae should immediately go up," he tells officers. "They refuse to recognize your authority, and that creates a dangerous situation."As recently as August, two sheriff's deputies in Laplace, La., were shot and killed in an ambush. Police said at least two of the five men accused in the killings were sovereign citizens.
In Florida, police approached Wright carefully because he had told them in past encounters that he was not subject to police authority. Wright paid his taxes with a handwritten "coupon for payment," said Deputy Richard Aloy of the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Department. He had renounced his U.S. citizenship.
"They knew they had a bad individual, and they took the necessary precautions," Finch said.Even nonviolent sovereigns can cause headaches through what Finch calls "paper terrorism." Some squat in foreclosed homes and file phony deeds claiming ownership, "paying" with photos of silver dollars. Sovereigns believe U.S. currency has no value but recognize precious metals as valid currency.
Many sovereigns — including the father-son team in the Arkansas shooting — hold seminars of their own in which they charge for lessons on redemption and tax avoidance.
"You pay them in cash for them to tell you money has no value," Finch said.Officials from Greensboro and other cities pushed for a new North Carolina law that makes filing false liens a felony rather than a misdemeanor. Finch said the law, coupled with training of court officials, has helped block or dismiss many phony liens and nuisance lawsuits.
But sovereigns continue to file suits and liens, hoping to claim property and damages, Finch said.
At one meeting Finch attended, a charismatic sovereign citizen told a rapt audience that U.S. currency has no value. But he also explained how to redeem millions of dollars from secret U.S. Treasury accounts, and how to use the courts to evade government control and taxes.
Afterward, Finch said, he asked the man what he did for a living. He was a U.S. Postal Service worker.
Finch asked how he justified working for a government he considered illegitimate.
"He told me he needed the money to live out his ideology," he said.
Crocodile Dundee Killed by Gun-confiscating Police
November 4, 2000Esclarmonde - The following article is purportedly from the November 2000 edition of The Firing Line. It was handed to me by a retired policeman and member of the California Rifle and Pistol Association. In light of what is happening in Arizona and reported elsewhere on RMN, this story takes on a "critical mass" kind of perspective.
I am unashamed to tell you I am weeping as I write this story.
Last August, Rodney William Ansell, the rugged Aussie whose real life exploits inspired the Crocodile Dundee movies, died in a shootout with Australian police who had come (to confiscate his unregistered firearms. Oh, you didn't read about it in our ‘free’ press? That's cause it never appeared.
A police sergeant was also killed in the incident; the number of "peace officers" injured while invading old 'Croc' in his natural domain is unknown, but likely he took down several. I don't mean to imply glee over the death and possible additional injuries; after all, they were "just doing their job" like the obedient Nazi's tried at Nuremburg.
Ansell had been named 1988 Australian Man of the Year for inspiring the movie and putting Australia on the Tourism Map." Of particular interest to us here in the tourism dependent desert, Ansell was probably responsible for hundreds of millions of increased tourism dollars flowing into his beloved country. This is how his country repaid him. Because you see, in today's world, no good deed goes unpunished and no bad deed un-rewarded. After all, Janet Reno was the laughingstock of DA's nation-wide for her inept to outright unlawful performance in Florida. She is now "our-Attorney General (in addition to Fidel Castro's).
NO SEARCH WARRANT NEEDED FOR DOOR-TO-DOOR HOME INVASION SEARCHES. GUN REGISTRATION AND LICENSES USED TO TRACK NON-COM-PLIERS.
What motivated this shooting? In 1996, Australia adopted draconian gun control laws banning 60% of all firearms and requiring registration of all firearms and licensing of gun owners. As a result, Rod Ansell believed that police were coming to confiscate his unregistered firearms. In Austrailia today, police do not need a search warrant to enter your house and search for guns. Police can search door-to-door looking for un-surrendered weapons in their gun buyback program. They have been using previous gun registration and license lists to check for non-compliance and confiscate now illegal firearms.
The rush to draft stringent gun controls in Australia, in a curious foreshadowing of our own post-Columbine experience, began after, in 1996, a crazed gunman shot 35 people. Australians were shocked, and the government reacted quickly. Draconian gun legislation was passed in the heat of the moment.
Notes former California State Senator H.L. Richardson: "They outlawed every semi-auto, even those pretty duck guns, pump shotguns and semi-auto hunting rifles. "They didn't miss a one. In today's Australia, it is illegal for any citizen except officers to own even .22's and sporting shotguns designed for duck hunting."
The result? As in Great Britain, crime has escalated beyond belief! In the year following implementation of the law, Australia experienced a 44% increase in armed robberies, 8.6% increase in assaults and a ~ increase in homicides. In the state of Victoria there was a 300% increase in firearm homicides!!!l In South Australia, robberies increased 58%. Two years after the ban, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Armed robberies are up 73% and assaults are up 17%. By comparison, in the 25 years before the ban, Australia had a steady decrease both in firearm homicides and robberies. It is now a haven heaven for every criminal creep who knows there's little chance law-abiding citizens can defend themselves. The police can't prevent crime or protect & serve you until it's too late - dead men and women can't dial 911.
OMINOUSLY, THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA PARALLELS THAT OF THE U.S.
Ominously, the history of Australia in many ways parallels that of the U.S. In the 1860's it had pioneering settlers like our own Western migration. In World War I and II, it fought with the Allies. Australia remained subject to Great Britain until 1986, when the last ties with the U.K. were dissolved. With just 19 million people, Australia has an impressive fauna including plenty of varmints like marsupials and dingoes which wreak havoc on ranchers' livestock. Yet hunting and Varmint eradication is prohibited for all but a handful of rich and connected Australians.
BANDITS, OF COURSE KEPT THEIR GUNS. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE CALLED BANDITS!
Bandits, of course, thumbed their noses at the new laws and kept their guns. As in America, by definition, only the law-abiding obey the law. The leftist Clinton/Blair-styte Australian government has even banned many types of knives. No doubt cricket bats are next.
In Australia today, self and family protection is not considered a valid reason to own a firearm. Australians used to be like Americans. They recognized the value of firearms. That is, until recently. In Australia, a basic human right has been outlawed and a noble way of life extinguished.
Now, in post-Columbine America, a replay of the Australian gun control drive is under way. It succeeded Down Under. Please, don't tell me "it can't happen here, this is America"
Good-bye and God-Bless you Rod “Crocodile” Ansell. I only wish I could have met you before your legal murder.
Special thanks to Miguel Faria Jr., M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, for providing the information and documentation that made this story possible.
NOTE: Unfortunately, the author's name was not included. I respectfully submit the article in full respect of his/her work and knowing very much that they just want to 'get the word out'.
National Police Misconduct Reporting Project
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