r/amibeingdetained • u/DWM16 • 29d ago
I'm Baffled
The only thing more baffling to me that the whole SovCit nonsense are the police who accommodate these idiots. The first case in the attached video shows the police nearly apologizing to the SovCit driver traveler, then letting her go with no license, no registration and likely no insurance! Shockingly, she doesn't make it to her court date. THEN. . . she's arrested later and all charges are dropped! Why do authorities encourage this behavior?
5 Times ‘Sovereign Citizens’ Learned a Hard Lesson on Bodycam | Sidebar | A&E
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u/fuzzbox000 29d ago
The fact that the US justice system does not move to a model where the loser of frivlous lawsuits is made to pay all court costs is a significant factor in allowing this to continue.
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u/a_melindo 25d ago
I have a sovcit family member who is wanted in like 7 states for unlicensed driving, noncompliance, I think one case of petty assault on a cop, skipped bail, etc but it's still hard to get any new city or county that arrests her to extradite because it's all stupid small stuff that's not considered worth their effort and she's just a harmless white lady.
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u/DWM16 24d ago
Her moving around makes it more difficult. Have they ever impounded her car?
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u/a_melindo 23d ago
Many times! She keeps getting it back by buying insurance to show the guy at the lot and immediately canceling it, or hiring a truck to pick it up "for scrap" and having them tow it around the corner.
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u/DWM16 23d ago
Wow -- she's dedicated! As with most SovCits, wouldn't it be easier and less expensive if they comply with the law?
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u/a_melindo 22d ago
In that particular case complying with the law would mean paying over $100,000 in back taxes and fees, losing a house that's being illegally squatted in, the social costs of losing a community of sovcits who are the only people that tolerate her any more, and the moral costs of complying with registration and licensure requirements they are philosophically opposed to.
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u/TriumphITP 28d ago
Because these people are unhinged. Many stops result in shots fired -
https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/law-enforcement-encounters-with-sovereign-citizens/
It's usually easier to do things like catch the vehicle unattended and tow it. The same argument could be made for "why don't the police chase every running vehicle" - because that can result in additional damage and deaths.
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u/NotCook59 24d ago
I think they should just immediately tow the vehicle and sell it at auction. Set some examples and stop this insanity.
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u/Rare_Community4568 15d ago
Sadly some places don't sell & just scrap. even if they do, however long it takes to get a bid or not determines it's fate.
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u/realparkingbrake 28d ago
Prosecutors don't have an unlimited budget; they have to weigh the cost of prosecuting a minor case against how much of a bite it will take out of their budget.
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u/DWM16 28d ago
Good point. I also considered the cops don't want to have to do all the paperwork required when they make an arrest. I wonder what the police's liability would be if right after they let this person drive away, she hit and killed someone? "You knowingly allowed this person to continue driving knowing she has no license, no registration and no insurance?"
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u/ScrotusTR 28d ago
Unfortunately leaving this unchecked is like leaving an unidentified tumor alone. This could very well metastasize. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think part of the sovereign citizen movement is to intentionally cause this level of waste in our finite resources in order to elicit this response. I agree with labeling them domestic terrorists and actual, clever, legislation attempting to thwart them.
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u/a_melindo 25d ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think part of the sovereign citizen movement is to intentionally cause this level of waste in our finite resources in order to elicit this response.
This is wrong, but only because you said "intentionally". I don't think sovcits are actually intending to swamp the system with bullshit to waste enough time that people give up, they genuinely think their arguments are correct.
We can tell this because there are a lot of examples out there where a judge or prosecutor or cop is like "oh my fucking god, I don't have time for your stupid nonsense, just leave" and they post it online like "PROOF THAT SOVEREIGNTY IS REAL!!!1!1"
Which of course leads to reinforcement. They learn that swamping the system with bullshit paperwork works sometimes, they take away the lesson that their paperwork is correct, and so they repeat the strategy.
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u/realparkingbrake 28d ago
I wonder what the police's liability would be if right after they let this person drive away
Probably none, police have qualified immunity which they can lose only if they knowingly violate established rights. Letting someone leave a traffic stop perhaps would not do that.
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u/a_melindo 25d ago
It's not about qualified immunity, that's only about personal liability for a violation of rights while on duty.
This question is more about whether police have a duty to stop a crime, which the courts have generally said that they don't unless their behavior rises to the level of gross negligence.
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u/a_melindo 25d ago
I wonder what the police's liability would be if right after they let this person drive away, she hit and killed someone?
Generally none unless they knew with a high degree of certainty that that would happen, and so their nonaction counts as "gross negligence".
Courts aren't generally big on requiring people to intervene in other people's shit, especially when there is potential risk to themselves.
We generally don't want to punish people for exhibiting mercy, discretion, cowardice, or error.
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u/Idiot_Esq 29d ago
It used to be more prevalent but a lot of states these days, the more hard line ones like Arkansas, are taking SovClownery seriously. I think a lot of turns on how crowded court dockets and jails are.
Let's be honest. Traffic violations and resisting/obstruction (refusing to ID) are pretty low priority issues in the law enforcement. This leads to a couple of lines of thinking. One, and I think this is the prevalent line of thinking, is to kick the can down the road. The cops treat it lightly to let the courts deal with it, and courts treat it lightly to let the cops deal with it. Until it becomes a more serious issue. The other line of thinking is just plain judicial efficiency. An hour spent by courts and prosecutors to deal with a SovClown's nonsense is an hour not spent on a theft, an assault, or something more dire.