REBUTTAL: Courts Still Lack Playbook for ‘Sovereign Citizens’ Like Darrell Brooks
Anders Anglesey, Newsweek, 10/31/22
EDITORIAL:
- The term “sovereign citizen” has NEVER been accurately defined. Calling anyone by that name invites ANYTHING one wants to attach to the status, which itself is terrorism and discrimination.
- We do not claim to be “sovereign citizens”, “Christian nationalists”, etc any OTHER name, label, civil status, or stereotype on this site.
- We do not claim that we are NOT subject to “U.S. law”. You cannot be a member of this site and NOT agree to be subject to the common law, the criminal law, and God’s law, in fact.
- The SEDM Member Agreement, Form #01.001, forbids the use of our materials or services from being used to ESCAPE responsibility or accountability under any of the law systems mentioned in the previous step.
- We are not “election deniers” who claim the election was stolen.
- We don’t advocate ANY position, in fact, that cannot be proven with evidence in a court of law under the common law or the criminal law.
- Members should NOT be acting disrespectfully of anyone, including a judge.
- The Southern Poverty Law Center are DEFINITELY the WRONG people to be asking about sovereignty generally. They are a government funded racist propaganda organization. See:
https://youtu.be/zPu1_Q6XNF4 - The article mentions that the courts lack a playbook to deal with sovereignty generally. That’s probably because the issued raised by sovereignty advocates merely insists on equality of treatment between the governed and the governors. See About Us Page, section 4.20 for proof and a definition of “sovereign”. We deny and condemn any attempt by anyone in government to introduce inequality through franchise or privileges. The foundation of our “justice” (Form #05.050) system, in fact, is equality. Making a profitable business out of destroying equality (Form #05.033) called a “franchise” or a “privilege” is not only not a government function, but works AGAINST the very purpose of establishing government to begin with and works INJUSTICE! It also makes the government into a pagan deity and institutes idolatry in violation of the First Amendment. How can a judge honestly argue against those opposing INJUSTICE instituted by a judge who is supposed to be instituting justice as legally defined?
- The article says the legal system is not prepared to deal with sovereignty. That’s probably because all the judges and attorneys are licensed and gagged from telling the truth. Everything that threatens their unjust authority is a Third Rail issue, and sovereignty advocates focus mainly on such Third Rail issues, leaving them unable to discuss them because the fraud of what they are doing would be exposed in even trying to defend an accurate description of it that cannot be disarmed by equivocation they frequently try to abuse to defend the abuse of their power. See Form #05.014 for a detailed description of all such tactics of deception by judges and lawyers.
- They mention that police officers don’t have policies for dealing with sovereignty either. That’s probably because they are victims of legal deception as well and when sovereignty advocates expose it to them and they approach their supervisors, they sometimes get fired for exposing corruption of the police function. Trying to get supervisors to write a guide on how to deal with proven allegations of corruption in their own department reported by their underlings without admitting the corruption is very problematic! That’s why they CAN’T be better prepared. See for yourself!
Sovereignty for Police Officers Course, Form #12.022
SLIDES: https://sedm.org/LibertyU/SovereigntyForPolice.pdf
VIDEO: http://youtu.be/qFDWYLWiE1I - They say sovereignty advocates play “word games”. Absolutely not! We expose their word games to show that they are abusing equivocation, presumption, and exploiting the ignorance of most Americans on law to VIOLATE the law! See:
Legal Deception, Propaganda, and Fraud, Form #05.014
https://sedm.org/Forms/05-MemLaw/LegalDecPropFraud.pdf - They suggest that judges and lawyers need more legal training on sovereignty. Bravo! That’s what we are here for! If we find out a judge or lawyer is one of our member, we give them lots of personal attention because we WANT our materials to be proven wrong so that they can be continually improved. Many attorneys over the years have become members and we have learned a lot from them and welcomed their feedback. None of them, by the way, have proven that what is currently posted on this site is inaccurate and they are often inclined to leave their profession when they discover the legal deception described in the previous step and the evils of attorney licensing that create conflicts of interest in the legal profession and keep the WHOLE TRUTH out of the courtroom.
- More on the subject of rebutted false statements about sovereignty advocates can be found at:
Policy Document: Rebutted False Arguments About Sovereignty, Form #08.018
https://sedm.org/Forms/08-PolicyDocs/RebFalseArgSovereignty.pdf
The U.S. legal system is not prepared to handle defendants who consider themselves so-called “sovereign citizens” like Waukesha Christmas parade attacker Darrell Brooks, according to legal experts.
On October 26, a jury in Wisconsin found Brooks, 40, guilty of all 76 charges against him, including six counts of first-degree intentional homicide.
The verdict came nearly a year after Brooks drove a car through the Waukesha Christmas parade in November 2021, leaving six victims dead and several others injured.
The trial was mired with frequent disruptions from Brooks, who represented himself in court, and he regularly challenged Judge Jennifer Dorow with sovereign citizen arguments throughout.
According to the Sovereign Poverty Law Center, sovereign citizens “believe they are not under the jurisdiction of the federal government and consider themselves exempt from the U.S. law.”
It added sovereign citizens “clog up the courts” with bizarre filings and that they “lash out” against officials through acts of frivolous lawsuits and false liens, known as “paper terrorism” as well as acts of deadly violence.
Sovereign citizens have been behind attempts to overturn the 2020 election through the use of allegedly forged election documents and a 2016 killing of three Baton Rouge police officers.
Brooks’ case highlighted the difficulty sovereign citizens can pose in the courtroom, with the defendant often fighting with Dorow.
Legal commentator and former Los Angeles Deputy District attorney Emily Baker told Newsweek while she has dealt with sovereign citizen cases she had “never seen anything quite like this.”
“Brooks has a level of savvy in his attempts to delay the court,” Baker said regarding Brooks’ courtroom tactics. “He will make a nuanced argument or correct the prosecution regarding the charges, then feign that he doesn’t understand the same subject matter moments later. It appeared Brooks believed if he didn’t ‘consent’ to the proceedings, then they wouldn’t happen.”
The level of disruption and disrespect shown by Brooks toward Dorow was concerning for Dr. Christine Sarteschi, associate professor of social work and criminology at Chatham University.
She noted while sovereign citizens had long proved to be a problem in courtrooms across the U.S., she did not believe the legal system was prepared to deal with them.
“Each sovereign citizen case seems to be handled differently in each courtroom. It is as if there is no sovereign citizen playbook,’ and each judge tries to solve the sovereign citizen problem on their own,” Sarteschi told Newsweek.
Sarteschi added legal professionals in the U.S. needed to be more aware of sovereign citizens and work on policies to deal with them. “Just as police officers previously did not receive instruction in dealing with sovereign citizens, it appears as if the courts are equally untrained and suffer from a lack of established policy.
“Today police departments are better informed with established policies. Our courts would benefit from more awareness and the development of specific policies and training.”
Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow with the Anti-Defamation League, told Newsweek sovereign citizens have been a problem for the U.S. legal system for many years but “increasingly so over the past dozen years or so.”
In response to their “courtroom antics,” Pitcavage created a guide titled Sovereign Citizen Behavior in the Courtroom in a bid to help judges and other court officials understand their arguments.
Pitcavage believes sovereign citizen cases are experiencing a period of growth in the U.S. and said there were previous surges in the mid-80s, mid-to-late 90s, and between 2008 to 2012 and that legal officials needed to be more aware of their arguments.
“Definitely attorneys, judges, bailiffs, law enforcement officers, county clerks and recorders, and many others have to be more aware of the sovereign citizen movement,” Pitcavage said.
“I have trained around 15,000 people on the sovereign citizen movement over the years, and some of my colleagues have also trained a fair amount of people, but there [to are] many others doing it, and that’s a drop in the bucket, really.
“Legal professionals—judges, attorneys, etc.—need to be aware of the sovereign citizen movement not only because of the problems they cause in the courtroom but also because those legal professionals are among the most common victims of sovereign citizen ‘paper terrorism’ harassment and retaliation tactics, such as bogus liens.”
Baker said while sovereign citizens delay overwhelmed courts, their tactics do not work and that judges who are aware of their “word games” can move cases along more easily.
“In criminal law, prosecution and public defender offices are well aware of common tactics used by sovereign citizens, which is a tremendous resource to the attorneys,” she said.
“Judges should, and possibly do, have training available to them in their continuing education and judicial conferences. More awareness and education for legal professionals is always a good thing.”