Sovereign Citizens - they aren't driving, they're travelling and don't need drivers license, insurance etc

[cakeorwine]

Inspired by the Auditor thread. There are people who think they are sovereign citizens and don't need a licence, tax or insurance

Loads of YouTube videos from police interacting with them and normally breaking their windows

How do people fall for such stuff?

If you think that's bad, it gets even more embarassing when British people imitate this and, seemingly unable to tell the difference between American TV and real life, start quoting US law in the UK.

This one from New Zealand is awesome

Can you explain what this post is about? As I have never heard this term and don't want to watch unknown videos.

I love watching these videos, even better are the court follow up ones!

A sovereign citizen is someone who believes that they can opt out of laws and government authority simply by declaring themselves independent of the state. They often claim that certain laws don't apply to them unless they've personally agreed to them.

One common example is insisting they don't need a driving licence, road tax or car insurance because they're "travelling" rather than "driving", or because they believe driving is a right rather than a regulated activity. Some also refuse to recognise the authority of the police, courts or government.

It's essentially a collection of conspiracy-based pseudolegal beliefs with no basis in UK law. You can't just declare yourself exempt from the law, and if you drive on public roads without a valid licence or insurance, you can still be prosecuted, regardless of what you believe.

The videos show them when the police pull them over

Some of the more conspiracist elements of the anti-vax movement tried to adopt bits of the sovereign citizen pseudo-legal stuff and carry out citizen's arrests of nurses during the pandemic.

They didn't get very far either, but I am wondering if they have now all turned into 'patriots' and flag-shaggers and asylum-seeker hotel attackers, as they seem to have the same uniform and general level of intelligence.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/59870550

I heard about that. How do people get sucked in?

There used to be some awesome SC threads on here, long time ago,came on to do an ama and got utterly roasted.

Wasn't there the couple who had the baby in Barbados and they turned out to be sovereign citizens. Funny how they expected the British embassy to sort that all out for them…

think they ended up being arrested for people smuggling

I don't think they have ever successfully won a case, they seem mostly to end up worse off because they talk shite, mock the judge and get held in contempt.

I don't think I've heard the term Sovereign Citizen. Is it a variation on the Freeman on the Land lunacy?

They tend to quote Magna Carta a lot, as well.

Stupidity and ignorance.

This the one! Get a coffee and a big packet of honors, its a doozy. Yes Freeman of the Land.www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2095211-to-think-the-common-law-freeman-on-the-land-thing-is-a-whole-load-of-bollocks?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

I remember that thread... An absolute belter.

They're such wankers

We have a similar group in Germany. They are called Reichsburger and don't have to follow modern German law as they live in the German Reich!

This one is long but funny and depressing

In a quiet part of Ireland with a laid back police officer who must have enjoyed it.
He was so stubborn that it ended up with his car being towed and him, his wife and baby daughter being stranded at a service station late at night

They are really rather stupid and uneducated, but they think they are much cleverer than everyone else, cf. the Dunning Kruger effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

There's a lot of it around these days, particularly in the current US government.

I know of one who refused to have an inside loo because he said it meant he didn't have to pay council tax. He had a pregnant partner at the time too, poor sod.

And let me guess, he still expected the council to collect his rubbish and maintain the area

Remember the film passport to Pimlico where Pimlico declares independence, maybe that was the first incarnation...

Of course! And have midwives at her birth (but not in a hospital).

He actually told the pub with great aplomb about his removal of the entire inside loo and moving it to the old outside privvy. He reckoned he had also completely learned the trade plumbing all by himself. I honestly dread to think how his partner is doing all these years later after a home birth with potentially dodgy plumbing...

I was going to put a laughing emoji but that poor woman. Hope she escaped. Perhaps the home birth midwife reported concerns

That would have fed into his paranoia nicely!