Top 10 Common Sovereign Citizen Methods

This is a list of the top 10 most common methods used by adherents of the sovereign citizen movement.

For those of you who don't know, the term "sovereign citizen" refers to a loose grouping of American and Canadian litigants, tax protesters, commentators and con-men. They believe that they're only answerable to their own skewed interpretation of common law, and therefore, it supposedly makes them not subject to local, state and federal statutes and proceedings.

They also believe that all forms of taxation are totally not legit. They argue this dumb concept in opposition to what they claim to be "federal citizens", who supposedly have unknowingly forfeited their rights by accepting some aspect of federal law. They also think that the county sheriff is the most powerful law enforcement official in the land, and that he is supposedly higher in authority than federal agents, elected officials or local-level law enforcement officials.

All these beliefs had come from this white supremacist Christian Identity anti-government group, the Posse Comitatus.

The FBI classifies some of the more extreme members as being domestic terrorists, which is understandable since some would willfully resort to some violent or destructive act.

Now, just to be clear, the objects on this list are not arranged in any particular order.
The Top Ten
1 Paper Terrorism

Sovereign citizens like to file false liens against law enforcement and government officials, hoping to rip them off and earn some big bucks. Of course, these kinds of false liens tend to clog up the court system. In short, paper terrorism.

2 Violence/Destruction/Etc.

Yes, there are sovereign citizens who resort to violent or even destructive acts.

In May 2010, sovereign citizen father-son duo Jerry and Joseph Kane murdered two police officers on Interstate I-40 near West Memphis, Arkansas. One of the officers was the son of then-West Memphis Police Chief Bob Paudert. The Kanes were shot dead in a shoot-out with the police afterwards.

Oh, and remember the Oklahoma City bombing? Terry Nichols, the conspirator behind the act, is a sovereign citizen, having asserted his supposed sovereignty in court at least three times.

3 Tax Evasion

Seeing as the sovereign citizens refuse to pay taxes, as they see such things as being "illegitimate", they just not pay them at all. Of course, you can get in trouble for tax evasion.

4 Pseudo-Legal Language

Sovereign citizens have a tendency to use pseudo-legal language propagated by self-proclaimed "legal gurus", hoping to get away scott-free with whatever nonsense they pull. They would even use this crap in a courtroom setting, for crying out loud!

5 Driving Without a License/Insurance Proof/Etc.

Sovereign citizens believe that anybody can drive a car without having to get a driver's license or proof of insurance. Of course, it's generally illegal to drive a car without a driver's license, and you can and will get arrested for driving without a license if you even do that.

6 Self-Victimization

Lots of sovereign citizens tend to make themselves to look like victims when they film their encounters with law enforcement. They do it so that they could discredit the cops and further the sovereign cause. Because of this, they tend to come off as delusional, self-entitled morons, no matter how calmly they act.

7 Word Salad

Sovereign citizens tend to play word salad with the legal system. Because of this, a good example is when they get pulled over, they argue to the cops that they are "traveling" not "driving", because according to the sovereign word salad, driving is when you supposedly operate a motor vehicle for commercial purposes. Yeah, right!

8 Conspiracy Theories

Sovereign citizens also believe in and even propagate these bizarre and complex anti-government conspiracy theories.

For example: They believe that the U.S. government enslaves the people through things like driver's licenses, birth certificates, insurance cards, those kinds of things, which the sovcits believe entail some kind of implicit contract that binds a person to the government as a corporate slave. They also believe that we each are two separate personas; the "Freeman", which is supposedly the natural flesh-and-blood human aspect, and the "Strawman", a slave shell identity. They believe that by separating themselves from their Strawman, that they could be free to do as they please without legal reprisal.

9 Scamming

Some adherents of the sovereign citizen movement are financial scheme promoters. In other words, con artists. They promote white-collar scams, including mortgage fraud, debt elimination and so-called "redemption" schemes.

10 Squatting in Houses

There are sovcits who squat in houses that didn't belong to them, especially houses that are worth hundreds of thousands or a few or so million dollars.

BAdd New Item