Bodycams for police are a recent phenomenon that have good points and bad. On the good side, they provide a lot of entertainment for YouTube watchers when officers run into people who claim to be “sovereign citizens.”
These clowns argue when stopped for a traffic offense that laws don’t apply to them. The cite fictitious court rulings and theories they claim give them a “right to travel” unimpeded. Many don’t carry a driver’s license, registration or insurance.
Some also refuse to identify themselves, which makes them subject to arrest.
Some go so far as to roll up their car window and lock the vehicle, apparently thinking the police will leave. Instead, they bust the window, yank the driver from the car and cuff him.
It is hilarious because many of these idiots act superior, call the police officers “public servants” and try to order them around.
You can find dozens of videos by going to YouTube and searching for “sovereign citizen.”
Local police encounter them as well.
Eye on Jacksonville interviewed one officer who has handled these deluded lawbreakers on several occasions.
One notable time was about eight years ago when he answered a call about a suspicious person at midnight on Philips highway. He found a person who would not leave someone’s property, proclaiming that he was a traveler on the land and didn’t have to obey the laws of the United States.
“We ended up fighting him,” the officer said. They also found that he was carrying a gun and was a criminal with a long record.
The ATF got involved and it became a federal case. The suspect tried his “sovereign citizen” routine in federal court, and it got him 18 years in prison.
The officer we talked to also has encountered a sovereign citizen who refused to identify himself and also was found with a gun. Some of these people are dangerous. This one also went to prison.
Just a couple of months ago he stopped a person who claimed to be “indigenous” and said he owned the property he was on. However, he left before he was arrested.
Claiming to be an indigenous person or a Moor are variants of the sovereign citizen silliness. Such people soon find out they are required to follow the law just like anyone else.
Where do people get this nonsense? On the Internet, of course. Some con men sell kits containing a script people read to the police and in court. Some who have been fleeced out of their money actually believe they know the law better than lawyers and judges.
