FBI eyes anti-government ‘Sovereign Citizens’
ATLANTA — Federal authorities are seeing an increase in the number of foreclosed and unoccupied homes in metro Atlanta being seized by members of an anti-government group.
“I’m not sure I can connect it with the economy, but we’ve seen a surge of these in the last year, in particular,” Stephen Emmett, special agent in the Atlanta field office of the FBI, said recently. Emmett said federal and local authorities increasingly are running into confrontations with members of a sect known as “sovereign citizens.”
“They’re expanding throughout the metro Atlanta area,” Emmett said. “DeKalb has had their fair share of problems with them and now Clayton.”
Clayton County SWAT officers were recently called to a foreclosed home near Riverdale where a couple had been living illegally. SWAT members surrounded the house after getting reports the people inside had threatened violence against anyone who approached. Gideon Israel and his wife, Deborah, had been living illegally in the bank-owned, gray stucco house on Stimson Way near Riverdale in the northwest part of Clayton County for a while and had submitted reams of fraudulent paperwork to county officials to try to block the eviction, according to Maj. Jeff Mitchell, who heads the enforcement division for the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office.
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FBI eyes anti-government ‘Sovereign Citizens’
Sovereign. Here is a word that conjures up all kinds of thoughts and meanings.
Definition of SOVEREIGN
1 a : one possessing or held to possess supreme political power or sovereignty
b : one that exercises supreme authority within a limited sphere
c : an acknowledged leader : arbiter2 : any of various gold coins of the United Kingdom
There is the basic definition of sovereign as defined by Merriam-Webster, and here is their very own interpretation of sovereignty.
Definition of SOVEREIGNTY
1 obsolete : supreme excellence or an example of it
2 a : supreme power especially over a body politic
b : freedom from external control : autonomy
c : controlling influence3 : one that is sovereign; especially : an autonomous state
Now in recent times we have heard a lot about STATE Sovereignty and the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
But what does all that mean to us? You and me, the average citizen?
Fed up with Washington’s involvement in everything from land use to gun control to education spending, states across the country are fighting back against what they say is the federal government’s growing intrusion on their rights.
At least 35 states have introduced legislation this year asserting their power under the Tenth Amendment to regulate all matters not specifically delegated to the federal government by the Constitution.
“This has been boiling for years, and it’s finally come to a head,” said Utah State Rep. Carl Wimmer. “With TARP and No Child Left Behind, these things that continue to give the federal government more authority, our rights as states and individuals are being turned on their head.”
The power struggle between the states and Washington has cropped up periodically ever since the country was founded. But now some states are sending a simple, forceful message:
The government has gone too far. Enough is enough. SOURCE
That last line sums it up nicely for me, “The government has gone too far. Enough is enough.”
I am also of the opinion that people like Gideon and Deborah Israel are not fully aware of the way they are bastardizing the words sovereign and sovereignty. I can find nowhere in the definitions of those words anything about ‘move in and become a squatter’.
Group members don’t believe courts have jurisdiction over them. They don’t believe in paying taxes or having driver’s licenses or car tags. They don’t believe banks can own land.
These people are also very anti-authority, of ANY kind, and have had members commit murder against police officers because those officers were doing their jobs.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Ohio man’s resentment of authority and run-ins with the law was enough for a local sheriff to warn that he could be dangerous if confronted by law enforcement. Years later, the sheriff appears right: The man and his teenage son are suspected of fatally shooting two Arkansas police officers during a traffic stop before they died in a shootout.
Jerry Kane Jr., 45, of Forest, Ohio, and his son Joseph Kane, believed to be 16, were killed during an exchange of gunfire with officers in a Walmart parking lot, Arkansas State Police said Friday.
The shootings came about 90 minutes after West Memphis police Sgt. Brandon Paudert, 39, and Officer Bill Evans, 38, were attacked with AK-47 assault rifles after they stopped a minivan on Interstate 40 in West Memphis on Thursday, authorities said.
Jerry Kane, who had a long history with police, used the Internet to question federal and local governments’ authority over him and held debt-elimination seminars around the country. He recently complained about being busted at a “Nazi checkpoint” near Carrizozo, N.M., where court records show he spent three days in jail before posting a $1,500 bond on charges of driving without a license and concealing his identity. SOURCE
This “Nazi checkpoint” referred to was a Border Patrol check station, and if you read the entire story from FOX News you will get a glimpse into the way the minds of the members of Sovereign Citizen work. For them, it’s not about sovereignty, it’s about anarchy and lawlessness, each man a set of laws and a nation unto himself.
There may be one area that I can agree with these people on, the federal government doesn’t need to be in the banking and housing business, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac need to be long gone.
Please, don’t confuse these Sovereign Citizens with good and decent folks that are 10th Amendment supporters and seek to declare their states sovereign of the federal government and the regime of Barack Hussein Obama.
The difference between the two is like night and day.
Well said Fred. These were not really Sovereign Citizens, they were crooks taking advantage of the moment. A truly sovereign citizen recognizes the need to link with other sovereign citizens. We call that a village, or a town, city, state and nation.
Right On target.