Blowhard, Esq. writes:
Time for a little hatethink, you guys! Did you hear the story about the dude in Ohio going around trying to steal peoples’ homes? He claimed the owners, some of whom were on vacation, had abandoned them and thus he was free to take ownership via a legal concept called adverse possession. Now, adverse possession is a valid cause of action, but the statutory period for asserting a claim is usually many years. In the case of Ohio, an owner must not use his property for 21 years before someone else may adversely possess the property.
But this criminal-trespassing troll’s misunderstanding of the law isn’t what interested me. As this other story points out, the troll is a member of the Sovereign Citizens movement. Huh? That was a new one to me, so I followed the link to the Southern Poverty Law Center to read about this extremist group.
The SPLC website begins:
The strange subculture of the sovereign citizens movement, whose adherents hold truly bizarre, complex antigovernment beliefs, has been growing at a fast pace since the late 2000s. Sovereigns believe that they — not judges, juries, law enforcement or elected officials — get to decide which laws to obey and which to ignore, and they don’t think they should have to pay taxes. Sovereigns are clogging up the courts with indecipherable filings and when cornered, many of them lash out in rage, frustration and, in the most extreme cases, acts of deadly violence, usually directed against government officials. In May 2010, for example, a father-son team of sovereigns murdered two police officers with an assault rifle when they were pulled over on the interstate while traveling through West Memphis, Ark.
I’m not for one second advocating or excusing the use of violence, but “antigovernment beliefs,” “don’t think they should have to pay taxes,” and “clogging up the courts with indecipherable filings”? Sign me up! Where do they hold their weekly meetings? Do they have a 501(c) that I can contribute to? The SLPC continues:
The contemporary sovereign belief system is based on a decades-old conspiracy theory. At some point in history, sovereigns believe, the American government set up by the founding fathers — with a legal system the sovereigns refer to as “common law” — was secretly replaced by a new government system based on admiralty law, the law of the sea and international commerce. Under common law, or so they believe, the sovereigns would be free men. Under admiralty law, they are slaves, and secret government forces have a vested interest in keeping them that way. Some sovereigns believe this perfidious change occurred during the Civil War, while others blame the events of 1933, when the U.S. abandoned the gold standard. Either way, they stake their lives and livelihoods on the idea that judges around the country know all about this hidden government takeover but are denying the sovereigns’ motions and filings out of treasonous loyalty to hidden and malevolent government forces.
OK, sure, I may disagree with the SCs on the nitty-gritty particulars but that sounds pretty good to me too. But my favorite part starts here:
The weapon of choice for sovereign citizens is paper. A simple traffic violation or pet-licensing case can end up provoking dozens of court filings containing hundreds of pages of pseudo-legal nonsense.
For example, a sovereign was involved in 2010 in a protracted legal battle over having to pay a dog-licensing fee. She filed 10 sovereign documents in court over a two-month period and then declared victory when the harried prosecutor decided to drop the case. The battle was fought over a three-year dog license that in Pinellas County, Fla., where the sovereign lives, costs just $20.
Tax cases are even worse. Sovereign filings in such legal battles can quickly exceed a thousand pages. While a normal criminal case docket might have 60 or 70 entries, many involving sovereigns have as many as 1,200. The courts are struggling to keep up, and judges, prosecutors and public defenders are being swamped.
Oh, those poor, poor babies! Did you hear that? Judges and prosecutors are being “swamped”. Never mind that burying the opposition in paper is a time-honored tactic in civil litigation or that drowning in paper is pretty much the definition of practicing law. Dare I admit that the thought of judges and prosecutors with desks full of bullshit filings contesting things like licensing fees warms my hate-filled anarchist heart?
But waitwaitwait, it gets even better:
The size of the documents is an issue, but so is the nonsensical language the documents are written in. They have a kind of special sovereign code language that judges, lawyers and other court staff simply can’t understand (nor can most non-sovereigns). Sovereigns believe that if they can find just the right combination of words, punctuation, paper, ink color and timing, they can have anything they want — freedom from taxes, unlimited wealth, and life without licenses, fees or laws, are all just a few strangely worded documents away. It’s the modern-day equivalent of “abracadabra.”
Nonsensical language? Special code? The right combo of words works magic? Heavens to Betsy! Who could imagine such a thing? And how dare these terrorists not use plain, accessible language that can be easily understood by our exhausted legal professionals? How rude of this hate group to inflict tortured, obfuscating text on these overworked jurists! Why, it’s almost as if these disgusting extremists don’t really want to be understood, they merely want to harass and burden our Selfless Public Servants™.
Funny how indignant The Cathedral gets when their well-established tactics are thrown right back in their face, isn’t it? There’s nothing more upsetting than peasants who don’t know their place.
Related
- The ADL and FBI don’t like Sovereign Citizens either.
- Thaddeus Russell’s A Renegade History of the United States is a very entertaining leftist-anarchist look at the country’s past.
- Via Fabrizio, a geography of hate.
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
The Southern Poverty Law Center is also an extremist organization itself. They are pretty much an over-the-top leftist outfit who positively HATE anyone who might suggest that white gentiles (especially those in the South) are in favor of the slightest form of nationalism. Don’t think the government should be involved in education? The SPLC will label you as being “against” education. Don’t think children should be bused around to achieve racial parity? Obviously, you’re a racist to them. Have reservations about the efficacy of affirmative action? The SPLC will call you a Nazi. Do you have a picture of Robert E. Lee on your wall? You’re a common hate monger to them. So, along with the genuine criminals they manage to occasionally find, they also include ordinary conservatives who dare to criticize the government. They are the SS of the American Left. Here’s an example… http://www.examiner.com/article/leftwing-extremist-southern-poverty-law-center-smears-conservatives-patriots
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How *dare* someone be anti-government! Surely, such a person must be mentally ill!
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As a soon-to-retire Borough Councilman, I am in a position to share with you first-hand my experience in dealing with a couple of these folks.
They are basically using the paper avalanche to get out of having to cut their grass. I admire their spunk, but our police chief– who actually is about as level-headed as one can expect a police chief to be– is pretty sure they are psychotic.
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Glad to hear from someone with first-hand knowledge. Yeah, can’t say I’m surprised that they’re unhinged. People can act in pretty nutty ways when they’re angry.
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These Sovereigns are huge idiots and usually lose, after much well-meaning effort. There is no basis for their theories, and law, while not black magic, is a specialized language, akint to science or music, and it’s pretty obvious when someone does not know what they’re doing. Sadly, some of these people seem to think they’ll magically get out of taxes or paying their mortgages, but the law has a way of pouncing on their stupidity.
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Great post.
In my legal career I first saw people claiming sovereign citizen status in federal court. The sovereign ideologies seemed to spread like a virus in the federal detention center and it was funny to see these defendants, who were represented by counsel, speak up to deliver some statement in court that they felt carried some legal weight, and the judges typically just endured it and heard them out. Gradually we started to see sovereigns in state court as well.
They don’t always lose. I was delighted to hear that this sovereign citizen was acquitted in federal court in Memphis a few days ago.
And I’ve gotten charges dropped against a sovereign citizen. I found, in my client’s case, once I had convinced him I really cared about getting him exonerated, he wasn’t so concerned with the legal filings he had made prior to me getting on the case. I wonder whether all these arcane filings are an attempt to reclaim some sense of power in a system that the self-proclaimed sovereign doesn’t understand and that doesn’t acknowledge the sovereign’s concerns.
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>> I wonder whether all these arcane filings are an attempt to reclaim some sense of power in a system that the self-proclaimed sovereign doesn’t understand and that doesn’t acknowledge the sovereign’s concerns.
That’s a way more eloquent distillation of what I was trying to get at. The SCs’ paper tactics are crude and admittedly a bit silly (like citing the UCC), but a part of me is rooting for them nonetheless. Most people are cowed and intimidated by our legal system, so I admire anyone who won’t back down.
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I used to be an IRS Revenue Officer and interacted with a lot of SC. They mostly fell into one of three groups. The leaders were scamming the true believers for the money from selling books, giving seminars, etc. The true believers are those you described above, desperately trying to understand why the world doesn’t understand them. And then those that just didn’t want to pay taxes and jumped from one belief system to another to justify to themselves and the world for not paying taxes.
When they became public enough the leaders usually went to CID (criminal investigations) Special Agents. Google -> James Timothy Turner for an example.
The true believers seldom had money or assets beyond what they needed to live. If only they would file a return they would owe little or no taxes. I would close these cases as not collectable, why spend the time, and to be honest, cause a lot of fear and anger for no real result. Mostly these are nice people, sometimes very smart but just…overwhelmed by bad luck and bad choices.
The third group did have money, think doctors. They would spend a lot of time creating trusts, transferring property to corporations and using the legal system to hide assets. But when I contacted them they would claim that same law system was invalid. Their money and assets I took.
Revenue Officers do *not* carry guns.
Most were not dangerous, but still, knocking on that door all alone, way out in the woods….
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Very interesting, thanks for the info.
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Thanks for chiming in, James. Always great to hear from someboy in the trenches.
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“someboy”. Sigh. Yeah, yeah. Alright.
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There is something to this movement, I know because my dad is really into it. He got an IRS lien taken off his SS checks recently (it took 6 months) and a few years ago when they (IRS) gave him a bill for 45k he didn’t owe he got it discharged and it wasn’t through bankruptcy.
But he hasn’t done any crazy shit with traffic officers or any court room scenes. There’s like a hard solid core of fecal matter in this movement, filled with those Moorish, Aboriginal movement types mixed with a bunch of southerner fraudsters who my dad unfortunately ran into, but in the periphery there IS some useful shit gleaned.
A lot of these dudes offer a way to pay off your debts via an ‘exemption account’ created at birth. I don’t know if that shit is real because every single person who I’ve seen offer it is a fake, and its most telling that many of them demand a shitload of cash upfront with non recourse agreements.
If these guys were ballin’ out of control, and could get virtually anything paid for, why the fuck would they charge so much? And then have in their agreements no refunds?
The best guys are the ones who don’t promise everything, who offer a little or no fee at all, refunds and their websites are focused on practical matters. I shit you not, my dad called out a dude whose shit wasn’t working and the guy replied saying ‘Go to god, I think you are being manipulated by the devil.’ Another guy had him read articles on quantum physics, some riff on The Secret and then ran off when he couldn’t do shit either.
In other words just use common sense when dealing with these people.
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Obviously I don’t know you or your dad or this case but……….
The IRS issued a *levy* on you dad’s SS, this is done systemically by a computer if you owe taxes and your reported income is above “X” amount. The levy was released when your dad (or someone representing him) convinced the IRS that the levy was a hardship. If a *lien* was filed then the lien remains for 10 years, the IRS is just not collecting on the lien.
As for the $45K, and again I admit I’m guessing, the IRS just closed the case as not collectable without creating a hardship or your dad didn’t file a return. In that case the IRS can file a Substitute for Return which will create a tax liability far in excess of what would be owed if your dad filed a return.
For example you buy $100,000.00 of stock and later sell that stock for $100,000.00. The IRS only receives a 1099 for the 100,000.00 sale and assumes its all profit and calculates the taxes. If you file the return you show your cost basis of $100,000.00 then no tax is due.
Bottom line, the SC BS had nothing to do with your dad paying or not paying taxes.
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Yeah that’s what I meant, levy. Thanks for the info, very interesting.
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They’re the Fake Sign Language Guy of the US legal system!!!
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LOL!
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