[Music] okay are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed so if you don't consent to being governed does the law not apply to you what's up this is soap you broken my windows i do not consent i do not consent does this guy really think that by saying those magic words the cops will just be like oh sorry are bad you're free to go i say that jokingly but i also know the answer yes he does these people go by multiple different names around the world they're known as free men on the land in the uk and the various commonwealth realms but here in the united states they're typically known as sovereign citizens but they also sometimes call themselves free inhabitants but we told you he's an article for free inhabitants so he does not have to have a license while this movement has more or less always existed it really took off during the 1970s with people publishing books and giving seminars on how they could get out of speeding tickets or paying taxes which is why sovereign citizens and tax protest movements often go hand in hand over the decades they've become much more violent with law enforcement having to go through special training on how to deal with them they've even been labeled as a domestic terrorist movement terry nichols an accomplice to the oklahoma city bombing was a sovereign citizen they also employ a number of paper terrorism tactics including putting false liens on your property there are currently 300 000 sovereign citizens in the united states significantly larger than any other group i've talked about recently a sovereign citizen is someone who believes that they are not subject to the jurisdiction of a government be it federal or state or that the government itself is illegitimate so they are sovereign legal word sovereign it's a legal word there are three flavors of sovereign citizens firstly there are the religious types the ones who believe that only god can rule over them you are not god you have no jurisdiction over me there really isn't much else to say about them the second group is a little more nuanced the diplomatic types who believe that since they are not citizens of the united states they are granted diplomatic immunity that law only applies to u.s citizens well were you a citizen of i am not a u.s citizen i am a free inhabitant i am of the earth i do not belong to any corporation i do not belong to any country no a free inhabitant they are allowed to they are their free people they um have all of the all of the rights of a u.s citizen without following any of their laws this is ridiculous for several reasons even if you are not a us citizen while you're in the physical united states you have to follow the laws of the united states even diplomats have to follow the law it doesn't work in reality the way it works on tv if i go to england and i get pulled over for driving on the correct side of the road i don't get to say i'm not a british citizen your laws don't apply to me the third group is a lot more complicated the constitutional types who have multiple theories about why the u.s federal government is not legitimate and like all good things they come in threes the constitution is the supreme law of the land we all agree with that well most of us agree with that the preamble the first paragraph which explains this document's purpose starts with we the people of the united states in order to form a more perfect union a more perfect union more perfect than what if you took high school civics or went to elementary school you should know that before the constitution we had the articles of confederation which were very imperfect the first subgroup of constitutional sovereign citizens believed that the constitution was never successfully ratified and that we are still living under the articles of confederation article 4 free inhabitant pursuant to the articles in confederation you can look it up it's in the united states book of codes the united states book of codes doesn't exist i have no idea what she's talking about unless she's trying to cite u.s code which several other sovereign citizens do in order to try and say that they're not citizens but nationals which still makes you subject to the laws of the united states so what is a free inhabitant the better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different states in this union the free inhabitants of each of these states shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several states all this means is that if you live in one state and you travel to another state you are legally treated the same as a citizen of that state free inhabitants and free citizens are not mutually exclusive terms just because you freely inhabit one state doesn't mean that you're not also a citizen of that state but none of this matters anyway because we don't live under the articles of confederation at least we don't the rest of society has decided to follow the constitution now it's been like 230 years it's time to get on board are you a citizen no you're not a us i was not born in washington dc or any territory of the federal under federal jurisdiction so no i'm not a u.s citizen i was born in america yes i'm a state citizen of one of the several states this particular brand of sovereigns agree that they are a citizen of one of the several states but do not agree that they are a us citizen they at least agree that the constitution is law so that's progress but they have an interesting interpretation of the 14th amendment which among other things created birthright citizenship and according to sovereign citizens a second tier of citizen all persons born or naturalized in the united states and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the united states and of the state wherein they reside they believe that this amendment created federal u.s citizenship alongside state citizenship according to them when it said the word and there that is denoting a separation of the two rather than a conjunction and that is somewhat true along with being an american you are also a californian or oklahoman it's also why we pay state income tax and there is in-state college tuition but again these aren't mutually exclusive you are both rather than one or the other likewise they believe that the only way to become a u.s citizen is to either opt in which we'll get to or be subject to the jurisdiction thereof this line is very important to sovereign citizens only people born in washington dc or a federal territory were born under the jurisdiction of the federal government therefore they are not us citizens they are state citizens just for the record most laws that sovereign citizens get in trouble for like speeding or duis are state laws even murder for the most part is a state crime so i'm not entirely sure why they give cops and courts such a hard time unless they think laws only apply to some abstract concept of a person rather than actual flesh and blood people so let's talk about the sovereign citizens who think that laws only apply to some abstract concept of a person rather than actual flesh and blood people you'll need to meet your straw man he was born the same day you were he looks like you has the same name and lives in your house from every birth certificate a legal personality or legal fiction is created with the same name to confuse little old you into thinking it's you so there is a human you and a pay-per-view in 1933 the united states abandoned the gold standard and allowed the dollar to become a free-floating fiat currency sovereign citizens believe that at this point the government lost its legitimacy they created a legal paper identity for every person in order to back up that fiat currency known as a straw man or corporate shell they believe that this corporate shell identity holds money in a secret government account they will only accept payment in silver or gold but will happily make payments in bills of exchange which pay out of that secret government account the only way to access this account is by reclaiming your sovereignty and separating your corporate personhood from your flesh and blood individual i am an individual not a person you're not a person david hall is a person i am a private individual david hall is a person under color of law sir okay where's david hall then the person david hall exists on paper sir david hall is a corporation i'm not a person so you you deal here with admiralty maritime jurisdiction which deals with persons which i am not he's not in some weird maritime merchant marine corps this is the american flag and this is how it appears on soldiers uniforms police uniforms and even some courtrooms you see that little gold fringe around the edge there to a sovereign citizen that makes it an admiralty flag which means it only has jurisdiction over maritime and certain commercial laws of course that's not what it means to the rest of us or even the flag code the gold fringe around the flag is literally the only accessory to the flag that is neither required nor prohibited and it has no legal meaning there's no law saying that gold fringe makes it a naval ensign and this is where we can really get down to the heart of what sovereign citizens believe that through some loophole or turn of phrase they can make it so that the laws don't apply to them that's not the right flag this court doesn't have jurisdiction in this matter i wasn't driving i was traveling i'm traveling like driving i'm not using it for like you're not driving right now i'm traveling in my vehicle you use the term driving and i was traveling sir traveling i'm not a person i'm a flesh and blood individual as long as they don't consent to the fact that that paper straw man is them they are exempt from our laws can i see your idaho state license no i don't have one you don't have one my person does but i don't and i don't wish to create jointer with you joinder is the connection between your corporate shell and you the individual joinder is created when you accept any government document with that name on it whether it's a birth certificate social security card or driver's license when you go to court you represent your straw man so you the human take on any costs fees taxes and fines involved for the straw man the human you doesn't even need to pay them but you made a contract with the court by appearing on behalf of your legal personality or straw man there's also a heavy significance placed on capital letters if the name is in all caps it's referring to your corporate shell not you sometimes you'll see your surname in capitals just like on a gravestone that's because your straw man is dead and just a silly piece of paper this is why they don't carry any documentation or pay taxes or even accept mail with a zip code on it they really do believe that by refusing these things or using the right combination of words in court they are exempt from use the word believe a lot in this video which might be slightly unfair to other beliefs i've discussed in the past sovereign citizens are just plain wrong they don't have faith in some untestable supernatural thing they just have a woefully inaccurate misinterpretation of the law even if they believe that the government has no power and the laws don't apply to them the rest of us do i do not consent i do not consent help help i do not consent the reason no one is helping is because as a society we consent and we have empowered certain individuals to ensure our safety and make sure everyone else is following the law and paying their taxes whether they be literal insane people or misinformed sovereign citizens it doesn't matter whether you respect the authority of the government of the land you are currently in because we do and as a visitor you have to respect that because now you know better officer number two nope in the spotlight and now they ramp up their game ask for their badge number and name and stuff too i came flying in that parking lot pull down the window it's down far enough roll down the window i can hear you let me see your driver's license registration insurance uh can those documents be used against me in the court of law let you know okay this driver starts being recorded all right there's a lawful traffic stop and you're required in pennsylvania to produce so you know produce that documentation can can those documents be used against me in the court of law each other before yeah you're cordial then i've learned a lot since then you see the documentation can those documents be used against me in a court of law excuse me can those documents be used against me in a court of law in what sense can they be used against me in a court of law identify you identify the ownership of the vehicle and the crew you know and make sure there's proper insurance to be used in court against me which goes under the fifth amendment which means i do not have to give them to you this is the last time i'm going to ask you so all right if i don't give you these what's going to happen then we're going to take you to the station all right fingerprints you okay you're going to place me under arrest well it's going to be a suspect idea at that point well all right if you do that what do you what's going to happen to my vehicle are you aware that under u.s code 18 section 242 that is a violation of deprivation of rights under color of law punishable by ten ten thousand dollars punishable by a ten thousand dollar fine for infraction where we're coming in and under us code 42 that's right 1983 that's a civil rights violation and i can sue you for your house your car and everything you own and have you did you not swear did you have points surrounding them did you not take it off oh look at this what is this what why is the personality where's the reason for this car here's the reason what's going on what's the reason for this what i'm stopping now i'm i'm not trying to get out why are you [Music] you