60 Minutes piece on Sovereign Citizens

I missed the 60 Minutes broadcast last Sunday, but the Who are "Sovereign Citizens" piece is up on the CBS website and it is definitely worth watching. I also highly recommend the 60 Minutes Overtime, segments listed below:

• 60 OT: Anti-government "guru" explains doctrine.
• Extra: sizing up sovereign citizen groups.
• Extra: The shootout.
• Extra: A son's death. 

If you're cruising for butthurt, read the comments section. The standard that they hold to broadcast journalism is ridiculous. There's only so much that can be said in 13 minutes, people.

Quatloos also has a thread on the piece. Some valid criticism is made in the thread - Overtime should have went into double overtime and explain the illegality of sovereign theories and paper terrorism.

SPLC has their own take on the 60 Minutes piece as well.

It's a sobering view. I've been riding high making fun of LB Bork, and despite the fact that he is a small fish, this news piece popped my bubble, hurtling me down to reality. There are consequences to what I'm saying, and there's really nothing to stop LB Bork from gathering what he can and ordering RJ Mills to hunt me down (and he's not the only one around here who will take the order). Don't get me wrong, I'm not afraid of my own safety - because I'm confident in my safety measures. However, I am afraid that I might cause an accidental death because LB Bork can't figure out where I live, so he'll pick whoever fits and run with it. Honestly, I don't know how I'll ever live with myself if that ever happens.

Who are "Sovereign Citizens?"

If you are familiar with the police training video that SPLC released a year ago, you'll find some considerable overlap between the two, both in footage used and data. It starts with Jerry Kane, a redemption scam salesman who lived out of his car with his son Joe, who on one day, snapped on a traffic stop in West Memphis, AK and killed two police officers (Bill Evans and Brandon Paudert). Soon after, Jerry and his son, were killed in a shootout with police in a Walmart parking lot. The piece then goes into Police Chief Bob Paudert's (Brandon's father) mission in educating law enforcement about the dangers of Sovereign Citizens.

Here, the footage of Jerry Kane's promotional seminar is much better in the 60 Minutes video. The message is the same, but we get to meet Joe Kane for a brief moment. He's very young, home-schooled, thin, fresh faced, and sports a tight military haircut. It almost seems as if Jerry taught his son that there's a war coming soon, and he modeled his son to look like a contemporary US soldier. I wouldn't be surprised if, hypothetically, a military recruiter once looked at him and thought "16...18... What's the difference? Welcome to the Corps, son!" Because of this, I find Joe's death tragically ironic - he died with his dad like an anti-government nutjob, yet he doesn't look the part.  

After that, the correspondent interviews J.J. MacNab, who is an expert in Sovereign Citizens groups and authored an article about them for SPLC. She also posts on Quatloos under the handle Demosthenes (pro poster). Anyway, she basically lays it all out to Byron Pitts with a sense of brevity that I wish I had.

It then cuts to Alfred Adask, who I've mentioned before in previous posts. He is a Sovereign Guru, and disseminates his Redemption theory on his short wave radio show, in his blog, and in his publication Anti-Shyster (hate Jews much, Alfred?). He also espouses 2nd Amendment solutions - not in a coded manner, he actually advocates killing lawyers, politicians, federal employees, and the like.

Alfred Adask's appearance surprises me. I honestly don't know how the 60 Minutes crew found him; perhaps he's the most visible and the most willing to do an interview. Honestly, I always thought the sovereign citizen scene is a free-for-all with no leaders, but I guess he is a big fish after all.

So for the first time ever, I see Alfred's face, and it is not the face that I expected to see. I don't know if it's a mean lighting trick that 60 Minutes used, but Alfred looks like he hasn't slept in a day, and worse, is obviously agitated. But Alfred went through the verbal motions he normally does on his radio show, complaining about government has abandoned it's core principles and it is too big and unlimited. Though when asked whether or not he pays taxes, he deflects in saying that he does except on backtaxes - which is a stupid thing to admit, but ultimately helps retain his street cred. among his followers. He has been burned before, so it's no surprise that he'd rather be a mouthpiece instead of a martyr.  

Here's the Quatloos thread if you don't want to Google.

The piece then moves on to paper terrorism - the scummier aspect of sovereign ideology - the act of filing bogus liens on their enemies such as law enforcement and judges to get even for their alleged mistreatment. Judge Robert Vosper of Rosendale, NY, is a victim of it. He carries a gun now because he learned of the connection between the filer of those liens (Richard Ulloa) with Jerry Kane.

Note on 9:40 - lol on the third mugshot. Looks like The Three Stooges Factory needs some Q&A. But truth be told, that man is apparently smart enough to know how to file a lien.

Note on 10:37, the Alaskan Sovereign convicted, look at his face and body language. He definitely appears to be a sociopath, and could use some psychiatric help.

Adask is then asked about his statement regarding 2nd Amendment solutions, in which Byron Pitts says that some people close to the Tuscon shooting might find his stance troubling, in which he finds it troubling that the government would ignore his speech and restrict his right to bear arms. Though I don't know why anyone doesn't find it troubling that he is advocating violence to an audience that might take his message too seriously. Paudert then saves the day and rightfully calls him crazy. Thanks Paudert.

In the OT piece, we learn the true nature of how Adask lives: deeply paranoid. The act of having a hired armed guard, writing down the crew's license plate numbers, is paranoia. There's no reason for it, and I wouldn't be surprised if the information was given to someone who might use it to stalk them or worse. Byron then tries to understand Adask's ideology, but to no avail. Though in my opinion, he just saved himself some brain cells.

But overall, Adask did not fare well in this, nor does he deserve to. He is a shitty person, he advocates violence and paper terrorism - and as a gun owner, I would want nothing more than his guns stripped away immediately. He's clearly irresponsible.

The rest of the videos, while interesting, were understandably cut for continuity. If you want to know the gritty details of the shootout, click on it. Unfortunately, it's a bit much for me.

Well, that's my take on the 60 Minutes piece. It was good, could be better in some areas, like how their theories don't work in court, but it's still effective nonetheless. Do check out the comments to the videos, there's some hilarious butthurt going around from some sovereigns trying to play damage control.

Stay safe!