1. Sovereign Citizens: What You Should Know
Presentation to: NAPHSIS Webinar
Presented by: Ken Bramlett
Date: July 29, 2013

2. What is a Sovereign Citizen?
Self-described
Answerable only to common law
Not subject to any statutes federal, state , local
Do not recognize U.S. currency
Free of any legal constraints
Reject most forms of taxation as illegitimate

3. Federal Bureau of Investigation
The FBI classifies "sovereign citizens" among domestic terror threats as anti-government extremists.

4. Southern Poverty Law Center SPLC
According to the SPLC:
Approx. 100,00 Americans are “hard core sovereign believers”
Another 200,000 just starting out
Resist everything from speeding tickets to drug charges

5. Revoke and Rescind U.S. Citizenship
Remove any evidence of U.S. citizenship by relinquishing:
Social Security number
Driver’s license
Car registration
Marriage license
Voter Registration
Birth Certificate

6. Sovereign Citizen Encounters
What should/could I expect:
Attempt to distract/confuse with paperwork
May identify self as an official of the state
Being uncooperative
Carrying concealed weapons
Dangerous

12. Frequent Tactics May provide strange response to questions:
“No not personally”
May present some form of homemade ID
Unconstitutional to ask for a drivers license
May state picture on DL is not them, is not human, is a “non-breathing extraterrestrial”

13. Red Flags @ symbol or copyright symbol after their name
Name in all capital letters
Putting punctuation before the surname
Using initials after name such as “sui juris” meaning “of one’s own law”
No zip code or brackets around zip code
Use of term “Employee ID Number” rather than Social Security number
Reference to Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)

14. Housing Scams
A recent twist in sovereign citizen tactics has been seizing foreclosed homes through the use of phony documents

15. Significant Growth
Although the sovereign citizen's sister movement, the militia movement, has garnered more publicity, the sovereign citizen movement is also growing, is larger than the militia movement, and engages in a much greater amount of criminal activity.

16. Potential for Violence
Sovereign citizen criminal activity includes violent acts, exemplified recently by the brutal murder of two West Memphis police officers at the hands of a father and son pair of sovereign citizens in May Spontaneous sovereign citizen violence, especially during traffic stops and visits to residences, poses a significant risk to law enforcement officers and public officials.

17. Deadly Results

19. License Plate Examples

20. Driver License Example

21. Identification Card Example

22. Paper Terrorism
When sovereigns are angry with government officials, their revenge most often takes the form of "paper terrorism." Sovereigns file retaliatory, bogus property liens that may not be discovered by the victim until they attempt to sell their property. Sovereigns also file fake tax forms that are designed to ruin an enemy's credit rating and cause them to be audited by the IRS. In the mid-1990s, a period when the sovereign movement was also on the rise, several states passed laws specifically aimed at these paper terrorism tactics.

23. Pass Laws to prevent “Paper Terrorism?
Aiming squarely at the antigovernment “sovereign citizens” movement, Georgia’s governor on Monday signed a law that will make it a felony to file fraudulent liens against public officials or employees, a tactic known as “paper terrorism.”

24. O.C.G.A
"Public employee" means every person employed by the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of state government, or any department, board, bureau, agency, commission, or authority thereof, and any person employed by a county, municipality, consolidated government, or local board of education.    (2) "Public officer" shall have the same meaning as set forth in Code Section (b) Notwithstanding Code Sections and , it shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly file a false lien or encumbrance in a public record or private record that is generally available to the public against the real or personal property of a public officer or public employee on account of the performance of such public officer or public employee's official duties, knowing or having reason to know that such lien or encumbrance is false or contains a materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation. (c) Any person who violates subsection (b) of this Code section shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment of not less than one nor more than ten years, a fine not to exceed $10,000.00, or both.

25. Questions? Ken Bramlett Deborah Aderhold
Inspector General GA Dept. of Public Health 2 Peachtree St. NW Suite Atlanta, GA
State Registrar GA Dept. of Public Health 2600 Skyland Drive Atlanta, GA