人兽性交

Sovereign citizens听believe they can choose which laws to obey or ignore, and deny the legitimacy of the judges, juries, law enforcement and elected officials most U.S. citizens acknowledge. They鈥檙e known to form their own 鈥渃ommon law鈥� courts, with fake judges听and even fake marshals.

While their illegal activities usually involve not paying taxes, using fake license plates or practicing 鈥�paper terrorism鈥� 鈥� the act of filing false liens and other bogus court documents 鈥� when they resort to violence, it鈥檚 often 听who are simply doing their jobs.

The FBI 听鈥渟overeign-citizen extremists as comprising a domestic terrorism movement,鈥� and called them 鈥渁 growing threat to law enforcement鈥� in a 2011 bulletin. 鈥淎s sovereign citizens鈥� numbers grow,鈥� the report states, 鈥渟o do the chances of contact with law enforcement and, thus, the risks that incidents will end in violence.鈥� Between 2010 and 2017, at least 10 law enforcement officers were killed by sovereigns.

A 2014 听by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism showed sovereign citizens as the most highly ranked perceived terrorist threat among law enforcement, higher than Islamist extremism and militia/patriot groups.

Vann was first contacted by police outside a grocery store in Maplewood, a suburb of St. Paul, after he refused the store鈥檚 request to move his RV, which had a taillight out, out of the parking lot. When police ran his plates, they discovered he didn鈥檛 have a driver鈥檚 license and had an outstanding warrant for failing to pay child support.

Vann didn鈥檛 respond when police knocked on the RV鈥檚 door, and he drove to a nearby parking lot at a mall afterward, ignoring the flashing lights behind him. According to the criminal complaint, 鈥淲hen told he was being stopped because his license was revoked and he had a taillight out, Vann said he didn鈥檛 need a driver鈥檚 license and is not required to follow the traffic laws as he is a free citizen.鈥�

He refused to leave the RV when police commanded him to, and when officers told him they鈥檇 forcibly remove him, he responded, 鈥渢hat would be a huge mistake.鈥� Asked why, he replied, 鈥淏ecause two people would die today 鈥� that鈥檚 f------ why,鈥� before reaching between the RV鈥檚 two front seats and telling officers he had a 鈥済reat big boom.鈥�

The police backed off and called a SWAT team, while businesses in the area were evacuated. The SWAT team eventually lobbed containers of a chemical irritant through the front passenger window, and a bomb squad robot tore off the rear door of the RV and pumped more chemicals inside. After an unsuccessful attempt to hunker down and avoid the irritants, Vann surrendered to police more than four hours after the standoff began.

Inside the RV, police found the apparent explosive device, containing an 鈥渆nergetic powder,鈥� which was 鈥渟haped like a pig鈥� and had 鈥淔--- the Police鈥� written on it. Vann was charged with making terroristic threats and fleeing police, both felonies.

Maplewood public safety director Scott Nadeau 听he was familiar with sovereign citizens鈥� anti-government philosophy: 鈥淚 would say my experience with the sovereign citizens is some are very well versed in that ideology, (but) there are others who just choose to not recognize the authority of the government. That overarching theme is denial of authority.鈥�

It was a close call for police, but also a reminder that encounters between sovereign citizens and law enforcement officers have had a deadly history over the past decade.

In May 2010 in West Memphis, Arkansas, two officers were killed after they pulled over Jerry and Joseph Kane, a father-and-son pair of sovereigns. After the traffic stop, when 45-year-old Jerry exited a minivan and argued with the two policemen, 16-year-old Joseph emerged from the minivan and killed both of them with an AK-47. The Kanes fled and ended up in a shootout with police later that afternoon, where two more officers were wounded and both Kanes were killed.

In 2012 in Alamo, California, a traffic stop over an obstructed license plate led the driver, a sovereign citizen, to shoot a California Highway Patrol officer in the head.

Those are just three of the law enforcement officers killed by sovereigns听in the last decade. In February 2018, a Moorish sovereign citizen 鈥� Moorish sovereigns are an African-American offshoot of the predominantly Caucasian sovereign citizen movement 鈥� shot three law enforcement officers听in Locust Grove, Georgia, killing one of them, after the officers tried to serve an arrest warrant for failure to appear in court.

And as evidenced by the events in Maplewood last month, confrontations between sovereign citizens and law enforcement occur with some regularity.

In October of last year in Logan, Utah, an officer stopped a truck with homemade license plates. The driver, 63-year-old David D鈥橝ddabbo, was known as a local sovereign citizen and had previously threatened to get into a shootout with police. After pulling over, D鈥橝ddabbo told the officer he had a firearm and would rather die than go to jail, prompting a two-hour standoff.

D鈥橝ddabbo鈥檚 surrender came 听to negotiate with D鈥橝ddabbo, because sovereign citizens often view the county sheriff as the highest level of authority they recognize.

As the FBI bulletin regarding sovereigns concludes:

Although the sovereign-citizen movement does not always rise to violence, its members鈥� illegal activities and past violent 鈥� including fatal 鈥� incidents against law enforcement make it a group that should be approached with knowledge and caution. It is important that law enforcement be aware of sovereign citizens鈥� tactics so agencies can warn the public of potential scams, spot illegal activity and understand its potential severity, and be prepared for and protect against violent behavior or backlash through intimidation and harassment.

Mugshot from Ramsey County Sheriff's Office