What Is a Sovereign Citizen?;4/23/18

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SOURCE: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/what-is-a-sovereign-citizen/ar-AAwfzG1?OCID=ansmsnnews11

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What Is a Sovereign Citizen?

http://www.msn.com

3 mins read

© Tennessee Bureau of Investigation A wanted poster of Travis J. Reinking from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. He was arrested on Monday.

When the man suspected of killing four people at a Waffle House in Nashville on Sunday was arrested last year in Washington, he called himself a “sovereign citizen,” according to a police report.

The suspect, who was identified by the authorities as Travis J. Reinking and taken into custody on Monday, was arrested in July after he insisted on a meeting with President Trump and crossed a security barrier at the White House, the report said.

The suspect “stated he wanted to speak to the President and said he was a sovereign citizen and has a right to inspect the grounds,” the report said.

In using the phrase “sovereign citizen,” it was not immediately clear precisely what Mr. Reinking meant or was referring to. But the remark has drawn attention as law enforcement officials search for possible clues on the motive behind the Waffle House rampage.

There is an anti-government ideology by that name that is identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Anti-Defamation League as an extremist movement. But it is not known whether Mr. Reinking, 29, had ties to the movement. An expert on extreme ideologies cautioned against linking Mr. Reinking to the movement without additional evidence, and Don Aaron, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, said Monday that he did not know “about the sovereign citizen issue.”

Here is a look at the phrase and the movement.

What is a “sovereign citizen?”

People who identify as sovereign citizens in the movement generally do not believe federal, state and local governments hold legitimate power over them, and they sometimes turn to cumbersome legal actions or take more violent actions as they flout authority. The movement has its roots in white extremist groups such as the Posse Comitatus of the 1970s, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which wrote in a 2012 report that the group was in the midst of resurgent growth.

“From every quarter, there have been more violent confrontations, more threats and acts of intimidation and harassment, and more scams and frauds,” the report said.

Sovereign citizens believe the federal government has been infiltrated by a nefarious conspiracy rendering it illegitimate, and often do not pay taxes or meet other obligations. Sometimes, they file a flurry of nuisance lawsuits or liens in an effort to harass public officials — a tactic the authorities have termed “paper terrorism.”

Experts say sovereign citizens are not organized under a single umbrella, but operate as a loosely affiliated network of individuals and groups.

What are some ways sovereign citizens have clashed with the law?

Because they do not believe in governmental authority, sovereign citizens sometimes set up their own juries or make their own currency — which has led some to face charges like impersonating a police officer or fraud, the Anti-Defamation League said.

They have also turned to nuisance lawsuits to harass local officials. In 2013, a couple who had lost their home to foreclosure and who identified with the sovereign citizen movement were sentenced to 23 months in prison after they filed billions of dollars in liens and other claims against local officials.

In 2015, according to the F.B.I., three sovereign citizens who had fraudulently claimed ownership of 70 foreclosed properties and then filed false tax forms against numerous local officials were charged with crimes including conspiracy and bank fraud. (The three pleaded guilty in 2016 and received sentences ranging from a day to eight years in prison.)

In some cases, sovereign citizens have turned violent in their confrontations with the authorities. In 2010, a father and son identified by the F.B.I. as sovereign citizens shot and killed two Arkansas police officers during a traffic

"Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I die): Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches— Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God."
[Prov. 30:7-9, Bible, NKJV]

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Neither this ministry nor any member are or may call themselves “sovereign citizen”.  The reasons are described in:

Rebutted False Arguments About Sovereignty, Form #08.018, Section 6.1 and 6.2
https://sedm.org/Forms/08-PolicyDocs/RebFalseArgSovereignty.pdf

"Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I die): Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches— Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God."
[Prov. 30:7-9, Bible, NKJV]

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