Tom Laughlin was led to the sovereign citizen movement by his older brother Jimmy, after he attended a seminar in Jacksonville and encouraged Tom to file the same documents he had filed. In essence, these documents proclaim that all US citizens have a strawman account, money which the federal government is illegally withholding from them. Sovereign citizens lay claim to this money and also assert that the government has no authority over them, Unfortunately, Tom Laughlin signed a document he did not fully read or understand. The document meant that he was espousing an anit-government ideology while being employed by a city government. Ultimately, he was fired because of that conflict of philosophies.
Far more insidious, the 60 Minutes piece revealed disturbing elements of the movement, including the deliberate murder ot two West Memphis policemen who had pulled over Jerry Kane and his 16-year-old son on a routine traffic stop. Kane handed the police officer a declaration of his sovereignty instead of the required driver's license. The situation quickly escalated, and a scuffle started. Kane's son fired shots from an AK-47, and, as father and son started to flee the scene, the younger Kane fired four additional shots. The two police officers had taken 25 bullets between them. That incident played a role in Tom Laughlin's eventual firing.
One of the most strident voices and a leader of the movement, Adam Adask, explained some of the tenets of the sovereign citizen movement. When I watched that interview, I was struck by the expressionless visage staring at me from the screen. He spoke without emotion and admitted that he had condoned killing policemen when necessary, although he had not done so personally. Essentially, practicing members of this sect are ararchists of a particularly troublesome kind. The same interviewer asked J. J. Mcnabb, who has studied the movement for a decade and has been asked to testify before Congress, to define a sovereign citizen. She replied, " Sovereign citizen, in its simplest form, believes that he is above the law."
This movement has garnered 300,000 followers, although not all of them practice its doctrine. I don't know about you, but I find this outrageous. Do I believe that the government oversteps it boundaries? Sure. Will I stop paying taxes and kill people who enfore the law because of that? No. Will I destroy my driver's license and refuse social security? No. If interested in seeing the 60 Minutes segment, click on the video below. You can also check out the website for more information that didn't air Sunday. Historical information can be found on Wikipedia and other websites you'll find in a routine web search. We should all probably be careful to avoid road rage incidents with anyone who espouses the views of a sovereign citizen because he will most like have a gun in the car.
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