Sovereign my Sweet Aunt Fanny!
by Primo Encarnación
O! this is Sweet, sweet, SWEET schadenfreude and delicious irony. The Rightistas are all in a rush to militarize our cops and sweep our streets clean with a hail of gunfire from armored RVs, each emblazoned with a Crusader’s Cross. Gone are the days of “he must be guilty, otherwise the cops would never have arrested him.” Instead, it’s been juiced up to “he must be guilty, otherwise the cops would not have shot him.”
Beat downs on bikini-clad black 14-year-old girls who have done nothing? No problem!
But just try, try! to pull over a middle-aged, white, Sovereign Citizen who thinks he knows the Constitution, the Bible and the entire Code of the State of by-Gawd Texas.
Primo is having too much fun today!
1Had I not seen and heard this video, I would never have believed what happened.
In this case anyway, law enforcement showed remarkable restraint. Been me… there wouldn’t have been a piece of glass left in the car. 🙂 Mmmmm K???
2In the ’90s there was at least one instance of a cop being shot by some nutsy “sovereign citizen.”
The foundation of the “sovereign citizen” movement is ill-informed paranoia plus self-aggrandizement. These guys live in a comic book world.
3Sir! We can do this the easy way, or the stupid way. I’ll give you 15 chances to show me your driver’s license before we try it your way.
4Sigh. I guess I have to research this sovereign citizen thing, if I find time. I generally just try to avoid cars with that kind of stickers. Fortunately I’m not a law officer.
5I used to have a co-worker who called himself a “sovereign citizen”. As far as I could tell, his great acts of sovereignty involved refusal to use zip codes and turn signals.
6Hope that police officer doesn’t have high blood pressure, ’cause that sovereign idiot could have severely raised it.
7The cop did show remarkable restraint, hope he throws that SOB in the clink
Sovereign citizens are a frightening group — Timothy McVey of Oklahoma fame was a sovereign citizen
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/ideology/sovereign-citizens-movement
8Marge Wood, the research has already been done. The Southern Poverty Law Center tracks the lunatics and haters. Their blog Hatewatch covers all aspects: http://www.splcenter.org/blog/
9That sovereign citizen was a complete and total idiot! That said, why does the cop have what appears to be military awards on his shirt? I’ve not seen that before on police uniforms. Just wondering if this might be a TX thing or if I am just ill-informed.
10I don’t even have to deal with them myself and already I am heartily sick of these fools who never grew out of the snotty little kid “You’re not the boss of me!” phase. Jeez, people, grow up.
11Ah, sure and begorrah!! ‘Tis karma, all dressed up in blue!
I know at least one sovereign citizen who keeps paying for the injuries etc. due to exercise sovereign citizenship and never learning one damn thing!
12I still remember the bumpersticker that said, “if you own a gun you’re a citizen. If you don’t your a subject.” What a dangerous cocktail we see unfolding before our very eyes. On one side you have the occasional bad officer that thinks he’s Marshall Dillon coming to “clear out the riff raff” at a pool party gone bad. On the other side you have a happy band of idiots that think no laws apply to them. Like the gate keeper and key master of Ghostbusters, let’s make sure they don’t get together.
13Nnina Jo, re your co worker who refuses to use zip codes,I hope he left them off his tax return so it took extra long, or maybe he doesn’t file his taxes.
14And I am probably going to be moving back to Texas from equally wacky Florida…where if we have a disaster, you can carry a gun anywhere, concealed and have no permit..because it is an emergency….
15@grannygrey, reminds me of a wacky mystery I read:
“Where did you get a bazooka?!”
“Please. This is Miami.”
If the NRA had all of its way instead of most of it, that could be anywhere.
16that cop was very, very lucky. these types are known for carrying arsenals around in their cars. it wouldn’t have at all surprised me had we been reading an article about a police officer being shot and killed during a routine traffic stop. again, very lucky.
17Rhea – that sounds like Carl Hiassen or Elmore Leonard novel.
18The video is hilarious, the cop kept his cool, and this guy’s a joke but if he were black, instead of a white, middle-aged ‘sovereign citizen,’ he would most likely have been bleeding out on his steering wheel before the 60 second mark.
19Oh, and that cell phone he was holding to video the stop? Why, the officer thought it was a weapon, of course!
I love Carl Hiassen! I’ll have to check out Elmore Leonard…
20If my guy gets a job in either Florida or Texas or Arizona, I am going to be very worried…not only are we liberal Jews, we are used to California and for the last few years, New York, sensibilities.
Our good friends who are gay are getting ready to flee Texas–we thought they were nuts to try living there at all. Scary times for lots of us.
That crazy Arizona senator that wanted everyone to be forced into churches on Sundays…what will she do with our protestations that Jesus is/was a Jew and observed the Sabbath like we do at the end of the week–calendars support the Sunday as the 1st day of the week, not the day of rest…just sayin’ the devil is in the details.
And the sovereign citizens of Texas scare me plenty.
@daChipster, it was a Janet Evanovich “Metro Girl” graphic novel, but the setting is similar.
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