[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i will start with reviewing this group rise of the moors then i'll talk more about more sovereign citizens in general on july 3 2021 at about 1 30 am the massachusetts state police noticed two cars on the shoulder of interstate 95 in wakefield massachusetts they stopped to assist the police would discover men carrying firearms and wearing military style clothing refueling their vehicles the police asked them to produce registrations for the firearms which are evidently required in massachusetts men said they did not have licenses for the weapons and they did not recognize state laws the police called for backup some of the men ran into the woods a standoff began it lasted about nine hours causing disruption to travel and to local residents the standoff concluded with 11 arrests the suspects who could be identified ranged in age from 40 all the way down to 17. two suspects would not identify themselves many of the members caused a scene in court refusing an attorney saying they would not submit to u.s law apparently the judge wasn't too amused as some were ordered held without bail because they were believed to be dangerous the group has been identified as rise of the morse it has been reported this group is based in rhode island where they claimed an abandoned residence they are moorish sovereign citizens the group claims to be their own sovereign nation the group has an online presence at the time of the incident they had about 5 000 followers on instagram a thousand on facebook and 17 000 on youtube the group released a video on youtube the day of the incident it was a live stream one of the unidentified group members said the group was not anti-government not anti-police not sovereign citizens and not black identity extremists so he was offering a lot of tips on what they are not he didn't really talk too much about what they were it's interesting he said they weren't sovereign citizens because the term mourish sovereign citizens would suggest otherwise the term sovereign citizens is right in the name this brings me to the next question who are moorish sovereign citizens are they the same thing as regular sovereign citizens here i'm talking about more sovereigns in general not about rise of the morse it's not clear how strictly this group follows the general tenets of moore's sovereign citizens the beliefs and origin of more sovereign citizens is a bit confusing i'm not sure that everybody in these groups really understands what they believe or why they believe it they use a lot of bizarre language and their descriptions a lot of quotes from various sources just kind of merge together without really being organized to lead to some type of point here's a general background on moorish sovereign citizens this group is a version of sovereign citizens that emerged in the early 1990s when people started to combine sovereign citizen thinking with some of the beliefs of the moorish science temple not all moorish sovereign citizens believe themselves to be connected to sovereign citizens again even though there's a real similarity there with the name in 2011 the moorish science temple issued a statement condemning sovereign citizen practices more sovereign citizens promote an anti-government message they believe they are part of a sovereign nation the moorish part comes from their false belief that a treaty was signed in 1787 between the united states and morocco which grants immunity to morocco from any united states laws more sovereigns believe they are immune from laws at every level federal state and local this is their justification for refusing to purchase vehicle insurance register vehicles and pay taxes they also use it to justify committing fraud they have been noted to fraud banks as well as selling falsified documents this is really how they make a living they sell a variety of fake legal documents and other items including insurance forms money orders cashiers checks license plates passports and other documents their strategy of avoiding taxes means they keep all the money they obtained through their criminal enterprise some other fraud is based on what they call redemption doctrine which is their belief that they can incorporate themselves this is a belief they share with other sovereign citizens here's how this works they believe that a trust account or bond has been established for every citizen in the united states the birth certificate is proof of this account it must be on the back of the birth certificate or something i don't know i guess they just thought to turn it over when no one else looked at the back each bond was initially funded with up to 20 million dollars the money in each account is traded on some type of international bond exchange members believe they can separate from the government and claim this money this is referred to as redemption in essence they believe the money is owed to them it is a birthright hence the emphasis on the birth certificate as far as identification more sovereigns often refer to themselves by using the words bay or l like b-e-y and e-l they sometimes display a red banner with a five-pointed green star more sovereigns are often in small groups they don't have any unified leadership most of the groups contain no more than 15 or 20 followers there are probably somewhere about three or four thousand sovereigns in total but accurate information about their numbers is not available more sovereigns have been known to affiliate with other groups including criminal organizations like street gangs so this brings me to the next question are more sovereigns dangerous most more sovereigns tend to gravitate toward fraud as i mentioned but there have been some incidents involving violence their unlawful behavior has led to many clashes with law enforcement more sovereign citizens have been known to wear military style uniforms they refuse to identify themselves at traffic stops they sometimes drive vehicles that have been modified to look like police cars like with a light bar and police insignia in 2015 a man named deante lanier was charged with first-degree murder he declared himself a moorish national and said the judge had no authority over him in 2016 gavin eugene long who was part of a more sovereign group killed three police officers before being shot and killed by police in 2017 a more sovereign named markeith lloyd killed his pregnant girlfriend shot a police officer and ran over another one also in 2017 a man named marcel walton was convicted of filing 3.2 million dollars worth of fraudulent tax returns he filed tax returns for 17 other people telling them they were entitled to remuneration from the government for its use of moorish lands alton identified himself as a grand chic of a moorish temple in chicago not just a regular sheikh alton receives six years in federal prison where people are more concerned with shanks than sheiks what type of mental health and personality factors may be at work with more sovereign citizens it's important note for any particular moore sovereign nothing may be going on let's look at some of the symptoms that appear to be overrepresented in sovereign citizens in general more sovereigns are of course part of this group sovereign citizens often engage in what they call paper terrorism they file unnecessarily lengthy legal documents containing bizarre terminology their thinking sometimes appears to be disorganized and consistent with bizarre writing and speaking members believe that special terms will help them escape consequences of their behavior when interacting with law enforcement and the courts like common law chargeback notice accepted for value traveling in a private capacity where is your oath of office and who is the victim it's almost like they believe these words have some type of magical ability like police officers and judges are robots and just have to know the passcode to get them to leave you alone i wonder if they ever tried saying clatube rata nikto it's a line from an old movie the day the earth stood still that prevents a robot named gort from being violent sovereign citizens tend to be paranoid believing the government is out to get them they believe that they have a special ability to see the truth that other people cannot comprehend they are amazing because they realize the government owes them all this money and they're not subject to the law they tend to believe in a number of conspiracy theories like flat earth anti-vaccination and the elite lizard people i think this sovereign citizen thinking is really like a very empowering conspiracy theory most conspiracy theories have its adherence being afraid and avoiding danger this one is like an aggressive version where they go on the offensive they're looking to get people angry at them sovereign citizens tend to lack insight they believe their behavior is normal their beliefs are ego syntonic instead of being disturbed by them as is the case with ego dystonic beliefs with all these symptoms in mind cluster a personality pathology is a possibility for some of the members like features of paranoid schizoid and schizotypal personality disorders psychosis is another possibility like hallucinations and delusions some of their beliefs really do seem to be separated from reality another possibility is personality pathology they may have features of antisocial personality disorder which is a cluster b personality disorder narcissistic personality disorder is another disorder in that same cluster many members also have characteristics of this disorder like arrogance a sense of entitlement and fantasies of wealth and power as far as a potential personality profile we see that they are high an openness to experience they're certainly creative they have incredible imaginations we see low conscientiousness high extroversion they are outgoing assertive and talkative low agreeableness they are distrusting antagonistic and they are certainly not modest they believe that they have the authority of an entire country some delusions feature a belief that a person is a king or queen sovereign citizens take this to a whole new level they don't just rule the country they are the country as far as the last trait neuroticism they tend to be fairly angry but it's not clear if they're really vulnerable depressed or anxious so overall maybe somewhere near mid-range my final thoughts on this even though more sovereign citizens can be dangerous i think their main goal is simply to cheat people and the government out of money they believe they can live by their own rules each person is their own little country it is a belief system that simply justifies a desire to do whatever they want it is a way of thinking that prevents them from ever having to face reality or take responsibility for their own behavior and my many thanks to dr todd grande so what do you think moorish american sovereign citizens your standard cyber citizens who's more dangerous or are they the same let's talk about it in the comments [Music] you