Freeman On the Land - A Disturbing Beginning

[LightinDarkness]

I decided to make a new thread on this because its pretty off topic from the other one. This is looking at the origins of FMOTL and its connections to terrorism and the "sovereign citizen" movement in the US.

The more I read about Freeman on the Land/Freeloading on the Land, the more I am becoming disturbed at how radical its "founding members" were. Freeman on the Land seems to be mostly originated from the UK, but its roots go back to the early 1990s with the "sovereign citizen" movement. I *think* someone has posted the ADL link before, I just can't remember who, but here is some background on the founding movement that gave birth to FMOTL:
http://www.adl.org/Learn/ext_us/SCM.asp?xpicked=4&item=20

Here are two parts of it that I had not noticed the last time I looked at it:

Members of the sovereign citizen movement engage in a variety of seemingly bizarre activities. Nichols, for instance, several times repudiated his allegiance to federal and state governments. He tried to pay a credit card debt with a fictitious financial instrument called a "certified fractional reserve check." Brought into court in Michigan in 1993, he refused to walk to the front of the courtroom and denied the court's jurisdiction over him. Even when he wrote addresses on letters, Nichols made sure to use the abbreviation "TDC" to indicate that he was using the federal zip code under "threat, duress and coercion."

That Nicolas would be Terry Nicolas, the Oklahoma City bomber. Note that these are exactly the same methods used by current Freeman on the land people. The "fractional reserve check" has now morphed into them believing they can pay all their debts with a fictional bond they think the government has on their birth certificate, but the other rituals are the same.

The entire FMOTL obsession with common law and rejection of statute appears to go back all the way to the 1970s with a rural US movement (the "posse comitatus" movement) that rejected the legitimacy of the federal government as the highest form of government:

The Posse reached its peak in the early 1980s when a farm crisis in the Midwest allowed Posse leaders to recruit among angry and desperate farmers. By this time Posse ideology had developed into an elaborate theory involving an original, utopian form of government based upon "common law" (the "de jure" government) that had been subverted and replaced with an illegitimate, tyrannical government (the "de facto" government). Americans obeyed the de facto government, because they had been tricked into believing it was legitimate.

There is absolutely no difference from the above and current Freeman propaganda. It is AMAZING how these wingnut conspiracies form, die, and rise again from the ashes under a new name and even in a new country. It seems as though Freeman on the Land was brought over to the UK by propagandists of the sovereign citizen movement in the US:

But to become a citizen of the United States was to willingly subject oneself to the complete authority of the federal and state governments; clearly, no one would want to do this. The government, therefore, tricked people into entering into its jurisdiction and that of the "corporate" state government by having them sign contracts with it. The trick was that people did not even realize they were signing contracts: these included items like Social Security cards, drivers' licenses, car registrations, wedding licenses or even, as Terry Nichols noted, hunting licenses and zip codes.

The sovereign citizen solution to this problem is the one that Nichols used. Since these contracts were made without people's knowledge, they could be declared invalid and torn up. Social Security numbers, licenses and permits, even birth certificates could be revoked, allowing people thereby to become "sovereign citizens," freed from the jurisdiction of the "de facto" government and courts. They were once more subject only to the "common law."

The exact sort of thinking from the above quote is on the David Icke forum every single day. Same reasoning, same points, same tactics.

 

[BenBurch]

And they are stockpiling weapons to try to force their lunacy on the rest of us.

EXPECT more events like OK city.

 

[Sunray Breaker]

The last article I wrote was all about this stuff...I've had a lot of comments and responses to this article since I wrote it, it crazy
http://www.examiner.com/x-23787-Den...09m10d7-The-Freeman-on-the-Land-myth-Debunked

I'm sure you folks remember it. I need new topic for reporting, any ideas?

 

[BenBurch]

Oh, I hadn't seen that one. Thanks!

You want to write on some nutballs; go write about the Global Warming deniers and their political backers and the people who FUND the whole bowl of granola.

 

[Sledge]

Do a follow up article on the FotL folks. Find people who've tried this stuff in a court of law and see if they came off better or worse than people who use actual lawyers.

 

[dropzone]

The exact sort of thinking from the above quote is on the David Icke forum every single day. Same reasoning, same points, same tactics.

But now with more lizards, I assume.

 

[dudalb]

And they are stockpiling weapons to try to force their lunacy on the rest of us.

EXPECT more events like OK city.

It is going to be interesting to see how long these "Patriot Minutemen" last in a firefight with somebody who is actually trained in small unit tactics. About Ten Seconds is my guess.

 

[Travis]

This is a movement that really needs to be crushed with force.

 

[teedot]

Do a follow up article on the FotL folks. Find people who've tried this stuff in a court of law and see if they came off better or worse than people who use actual lawyers.

I have an ex-friend who tried to pull one of these FotL stunts in a courtroom, among other things. He was influenced by a family member who was into all the sovereign citizen stuff. The family member had had not actually done anything but instead pushed my ex-friend into doing FotL things. Anyway, ex-friend was stupid enough to listen to the family member and he wound up being busted by the FBI and spent some time in prison. He's now out with 5 years probation and has disavowed all of the FotL stuff.

 

[fuelair]

This is a movement that really needs to be crushed with force.

Or gravity!! Oh, wait, gravity is a force!! My bad.......

 

[BenBurch]

It is going to be interesting to see how long these "Patriot Minutemen" last in a firefight with somebody who is actually trained in small unit tactics. About Ten Seconds is my guess.

That is why the cowards blow stuff up. They subconsciously know they could not oppose a force stronger than the average police department, though they never will admit that even to themselves.

 

[BenBurch]

I have an ex-friend who tried to pull one of these FotL stunts in a courtroom, among other things. He was influenced by a family member who was into all the sovereign citizen stuff. The family member had had not actually done anything but instead pushed my ex-friend into doing FotL things. Anyway, ex-friend was stupid enough to listen to the family member and he wound up being busted by the FBI and spent some time in prison. He's now out with 5 years probation and has disavowed all of the FotL stuff.

An ex-coworker from back in the late 70s, who had his own church to evade taxes, tried to claim that he owned our company, and wrote it all off as a loss on his taxes... He served 3 years and had another 3 probation...

 

[Moss]

Oh, wow, interesting connection to US domestic terrorism.
Also interesting that it echoes sentiments going as far back as the German Peasant's War^WP with its call for the (re-)establishment of a romanticised long lost law and true justice.
I suppose the ideas go even further back. (Wat Tyler? Even further back?)

 

[geni]

This is a movement that really needs to be crushed with force.

I think not. Actual violent action is limited. The Oklahoma City bombing appears to have been a one off so far. There was the Edward and Elaine Brown siege but the authorities managed to defuse that with no one getting hurt.

For the most part what we can tell the sovereign citizen's, the tax protestors and the FMOTL are dreamers. A handful are prepared to put up enough of a fight to drag things through the court. Much like the white supreamists they need keeping an eye on but they pose only a fairly limited threat.

Not sure that the british ones have ever shown any violent tendancies.

 

[dudalb]

That is why the cowards blow stuff up. They subconsciously know they could not oppose a force stronger than the average police department, though they never will admit that even to themselves.

Hell, an average police department could make mincemeat of of a bunch of FOTLers.

 

[LightinDarkness]

Hell, an average police department could make mincemeat of of a bunch of FOTLers.

I have a feeling the excuses on the FOTL side would be the same as they are now when they lose court case after court case and have their members thrown in jail: its not that they were wrong, its that the courts/police/lawyers don't actually know the law and not playing the game right.

 

[zaphod2016]

This is a movement that really needs to be crushed with force.

This is a movement that was born as a result of excessive force.

The solution here is civics education, reasonable law enforcement as required, and more excellent articles such as those provided by LightinDarkness and Sunray Breaker.

 

[Alferd_Packer]

But now with more lizards, I assume.

No, more cowbell!

"Guess what?! I got a fever, and the only prescription... is more cowbell!"

 

[Alareth]

This is a movement that was born as a result of excessive force.

Uh, no.

Waco and Ruby Ridge did not create the Freeman movement.

 

[Cl1mh4224rd]

The trick was that people did not even realize they were signing contracts: these included items like Social Security cards, drivers' licenses, car registrations, wedding licenses or even, as Terry Nichols noted, hunting licenses and zip codes.

The thing I don't understand is why even require the signatures? The whole point in tricking someone into signing a contract is so that you can whip said contract out in the future and tell the signee, "Ohhh, but you signed your driver's license. You have to approach the bench. *evil laughter*"

That's not happening.

So what's the point? It's like the FotL loons believe this wholly illegitimate government is, for some reason, strictly adhering to some secret procedure for absolutely no one's benefit.