Have you heard of Sovereign Citizens? I bet you’ve seen videos of them even if you’re not sure of the name. They’re sort of like fantasy role-player people, except instead of a world full of wizards and elves and orcs and smurfs and shit, it’s a world of this strange, parallel bureaucracy where they all somehow don’t have to follow the rules of everyday life in a society, and can work around requirements like taxes and car registration or insurance by showing stacks of weird, complicated documents and speaking in a nearly-incomprehensible dense jargon of made-up legalese. In almost any interaction with actual authority figures or government officials, this never works. They’re also wildly, even fascinatingly annoying to watch in action.
I’m mentioning all of this because I just found out that Walmart – yes, that Walmart, the place where we get our car batteries and Fruity Pebbles – is happily selling not-legally-usable Sovereign Citizen Bullshit license plates for your car.
I know I should know better, but I’m sort of amazed that a mainstream retailer like Walmart is selling this stuff; I always assumed these idiots just got these from Etsy sellers or small private websites, I didn’t realize that one of the biggest retailers in America would be fine selling something that is really only used for illegal purposes. Why the hell else would you want a license plate that says “FREE MAN” and has “NOT FOR COMMERCE USE” and “TRAVELING, NOT DRIVING” printed on it? For novelty value?
It’s not novelty value. All those words are Sovereign Citizen bullshit buzzwords. Like “traveling” instead of driving, or other silly semantic games. And why is FREE MAN a buck more than the others? You’d think BUST ME would be the top-tier one, because it’s the most daring!
Here’s how the UNC School of Government describes Sovereign Citizen’s relationship with things like vehicle tags, from a 2013 report called A Quick Guide to Sovereign Citizens:
Sovereign citizens may issue their own driver’s licenses and vehicle tags, create and file their own liens against government officials who cross them, question judges about the validity of their oaths, challenge the applicability of traffic laws to them and, in extreme cases, resort to violence to protect their imagined rights. They speak an odd quasi-legal language and believe that by not capitalizing names and by writing in red and using certain catch phrases they can avoid any liability in our judicial system. They even think they can lay claim to vast sums of money held by the United States Treasury, based on the premise that the government has secretly pledged them as security for the country’s debts. Based on these beliefs, and a twisted understanding of the Uniform Commercial Code, they try various schemes that they think discharge them from responsibility for their debts.
It’s exhausting.
Here’s a video of a Sovereign Citizen traffic stop in action, in case you were morbidly curious:
There’s whole compilations of bodycam videos of police having to deal with Sovereign Citizens, if you feel like being annoyed even more:
They’re, um, a lot. And I realize my own hypocrisy as I type these words, as I hate dealing with registration and paperwork and all of that associated Kafkaesque tedium. I’ve also had my truck on FARM USE plates for far too long. But everything I drive has insurance and I have a valid license and I do understand the need for these things, because we do live in a society where we all have to work together. It’s imperfect, sure, but there are rules we all need to at least try to agree to, and making up a whole parallel inane legal system just isn’t going to make anything better for anyone.
I don’t think that if Walmart stopped selling these things that any of this would end; Sovereign Citizens would just find another source for these things. But at the same time, it is worth noting that Walmart is making a profit off items that will be used for illegal activity, and, in fact, can really only be used for that. You can buy a bow and arrow at Walmart and use it for illegal things, like holding up a convenience store with a lot more flair than some boring gun, but you can also use it for plenty of legal things, like poking holes in your aluminum siding from 20 yards away or attempting a more exciting way to make kebabs.
But these license plates? Their only use is for dummies who read too many maritime law textbooks to try and drive without insurance before they end up in jail.
It’s worth mentioning that Walmart is like Amazon in that they allow third-party sellers, which this definitely could be. That makes it a little less egregious, I suppose, but it’s still being sold via Walmart’s site, whether it comes from a third-party seller or not. Maybe that makes a difference? I don’t know.
Still, on some basic level, fundamentally, this is all fine for Walmart to sell. What a weird world.
(top image: Walmart, Renault)
Walmart knows its audience.
Hey, I just figured out who ICE should be grabbing for deportation.
Heinlein in the ’30s-’40s predicted “The crazy years” a time of profound social and technolgical upheaval that many would not be able to cope with and that would break brains. People would resort to religion, cults, conspiracy theories, etc…
I thought it had come in the ’90s, a Golden Age compared to this shit show.
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time – when the United States is a service & information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, & no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals & nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good & what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition & darkness.” – Carl Sagan
Sadly true in this 21st century. Many of the big thinkers and Sci-Fi greats saw it coming.
The sole story Heinlein had outlined, but refused to write was the rise of Nemiagh Scudder, I sadly suspect that outline reflects the presnt day.
Says the man with a Farm Use tag on his F-150….
Says the person that commented before reading. 😉
Guilty as charged… I read the full article later.
A friend had been driving on a Polish drivers license for 50 years, since they were issued for life, or at least had no expiration date printed on it. He got it while working for the state department, a very long story.
Anyway, a while back he got pulled over was told that the while the license may be a lifetime license, the county had died, so he needed a new one.
Thought for a hot second that these could be great practical joke plates to put on someone else’s car, but then realized it could get them killed.
These would be technically legal on the front of your car in states that only require rear plates, which probably gives the seller more protection than the phrase “for off-road use only.”
It still wouldn’t inspire the cops to cut you a break.
Not loving the unqualified use by UNC of “may,” here, nor of “question,” challenge,” or “think.”
Sovereign citizens may issue their own driver’s licenses and vehicle tags, create and file their own liens against government officials who cross them, question judges about the validity of their oaths, challenge the applicability of traffic laws to them and, in extreme cases, resort to violence to protect their imagined rights. They speak an odd quasi-legal language and believe that by not capitalizing names and by writing in red and using certain catch phrases they can avoid any liability in our judicial system. They even think they can lay claim to vast sums of money held by the United States Treasury, based on the premise that the government has secretly pledged them as security for the country’s debts. Based on these beliefs, and a twisted understanding of the Uniform Commercial Code, they try various schemes that they think discharge them from responsibility for their debts.
They’re simply morons. Perhaps officially defined as libertarians. The anti-government, anti-society, me-me-me attitude says everything you need to know about them.
Just because people don’t understand our nightmarish state or have been scammed into believing there is a way to circumvent it does not mean they are morons.
Treating people who have lost the path through society or are disconnected from reality as morons is not conductive to have helping them get on a better path.
Yeah, I suspect some of the SovCits are grifters, some are morons, and a large portion have found themselves at odds with some statute they didn’t understand and were sold on the idea that they could learn the right words.
The legal system using Latin, plain English, and specialized terms really doesn’t help. And then you have the fact that lawyers can find “loopholes” and have to study for years to learn to properly read and interpret laws. It’s no wonder some people think that someone offering them the magic words just knows something they don’t.
Hell, I’ve seen actual attorneys get tripped up by missing a definition. An attorney I know was convinced that a personalized plate meant he did not need a front plate because the statute carved out an exemption for custom vehicle plates. This exemption was actually on specific plates for custom vehicles, but he’d never really looked at all the defined plates.
My point was that “may” is also used as “are allowed to. “May I leave the table?” Yes, you may leave the table. And you may issue your own driver’s licenses and vehicle tags.”
We have defendants “challenge” the applicability of traffic laws every day, our entire judicial system is adversarial and depends upon challenge. And people “think” all sorts of things; the question is whether or not what they think is accurate. There is no mention here that what they think is, in fact, batshit crazy.
UNC does not provide any qualification here – it’s just sloppy language.
It’s actually related to the same problem that encourages SovCits. In some cases, there is imprecise language in a statute (or, more often, language that appears imprecise to someone who doesn’t understand how laws are written–I’ve seen plenty of people just not realize that terms are defined in a different section than they are reading).
So, yeah, I agree that “might” would probably be better than “may” here, to avoid sounding permissive.
So just to be clear, Walmart is not selling Renault R16s?
I think it is important to remember that a lot of sov-cits are people in bad situations that have been victimized by a grfiter.
The path into the ideology is often through some form of grift designed to take advantage of people, often desperate people trying to find solutions to desperate situations.
The scams focus on people who are unable to get to work because of a driving privileges issue, those in tax or other debt, or with legal problems, and sell them made-up ‘solutions.’ Usually, these people are charged for videos, books, etc, that claim with the right words and documents, they have a magic path around the problems in their life.
For people caught in a legal or financial system they do not understand, these are attractive lies that, unfortunately, often only worsen their legal issues.
Thank you for saying this. The SovCit / pseudolaw world is a morass of scammers, suckers and the mentally ill, many of whom are major assholes apart from that. And it’s sustained by recruiting desperate ignorant people, taking everything they have, then serving them up on a plate to the authorities.
Aren’t these the official licence plates of Jasonia?
I’d like to see the actual (heh) Jasonia license plates. (hint hint, writers)
Especially Adrian’s.
Many points for Kafkaesque.
As if I needed yet another reason to prolong my decade-long streak of not going to Wal-Mart. I imagine the phrase “good corporate citizen” is an oxymoron to many, but Wal-Mart isn’t one.
I have never been in one, and never will.
This is clickbait crap. You cannot buy these at Walmart stores!
These are only available online, and while on walmart’s site, they are “sold and shipped” by a third party, not Walmart!
You can also buy these at Amazon, and likely every other retailer that allows “marketplace” third-party sellers on their site. So I reiterate this is tempest-in-a-teapot clickbait.
amazon dot com/dp/B0DNYDX8LT
Just saw a reasonable movie with Nick Offerman, on the sovereign subject, somewhere on streaming recently: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26843513/
Fun to think that the term was some sign on a Daimler car, in the previous century:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimler_Sovereign
Was I the only one who clicked on the article because I expected some link between the Renault 16 and the Sovereign Citizens ? I mean, that’s not a “random car” to use as an illustration, there must be like 10 remaining in the States…
(also, what a missed occasion to use a Daimler Sovereign)
Well, the Renault 16 didn’t really identify as anything conventional, being (one of) the first MPV or hatchback cars
The best part of the first video is the long sigh at the beginning.
He knows what he is in for.
I heard a lawyer speak recently, and he said one of the worst things he encounters with any regularity is these people. They get in trouble for doing stupid things, then double down on the dumb to the result of audible eye rolls and guaranteed failure. He said they give themselves away within about 0.2 seconds, and then waste hours of everyone’s time.
Is it bad that I kinda want one for the garage wall? It’s a good fit for the wifi band I just named Very Gay Frogs 6G. That new high-powered router is gonna turn the frickin’ frogs so gay that they speckle my yard with glittery rainbow sprinkles. Well, that is, if frogs DO exist and aren’t secretly surveillance robots for the feds. I’M ONTO YOU, AMPHIBIANS.
These people are all of the same ilk. And there are WAY too many of them… Witness the orange emperor and his fancy clothing.
Anti-government, anti-any non-white people, etc. Yes, Trump gave them all a boost.
Wait ’till you heart about the birds.
Word.
Oh, I know about the birds. RALLY CHICKEN IS THE ONLY BIRD WHO ISN’T A FED!
I heard Firehawk is the leader…
Screaming Chicken is an informant for BIG FEATHER
Man this comment is so full of trigger words I am afraid to even comment for fear I would be blocked
But yeah pretty funny
That’s what The Man WANTS you to think.
Only in the USA, land of all the nutcases.
And also Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Canada, Australia, UK, New Zealand, its basically spreading like cancer over the Internet, SovCit stuff is popping up everywhere. The Reichsbürger people in Germany are a whole different strain of crazy, they believe that the post WWI German republic still legally exists, and that the postwar Federal Republic is illegally occupying its territory, and that they are therefore German Reich citizens and not Federal Republic citizens
I thought the Reichsburger was a menu item at the Tesla Cafe.
I will be now!
comes with extra Epic Bacon and Diarrhea Sauce
Yeah. 🙁 We (collectively, as the world) really, really need to deal with the assorted crises (mental health, loneliness, etc., etc.) that push people to seek solace in fringe movements. The more hopeless or desperate you are, the easier it is to latch onto any crackpot who gives you anything resembling hope or power over your own circumstances. The internet is an ever-present place to find said crackpots and makes falling down that hole way too easy if you’re goin’ through it.
One wonders how often the cops actually pull SovCits over for such plates because it indeed does seem so damn exhausting dealing with those people and their rambling convoluted pseudo-legalese and some cops might not feel up to it about dealing with such crap on some days. And SovCits mostly tend to be straight white men, you know, the group of people *least* likely to be hassled by law enforcement…
Other than the Moorish sovereign citizens, yeah, its a real thing
Can anyone explain why the police let them ramble on for so long? Are they giving them enough rope to hang themselves? I’ve watched too many of these videos and I’m surprised how many of them want to call their spouses for advice during the traffic stop.
Honestly, I think some of the guys who wait might be trying to suss out the threat. I’d be scared as heck dealing with a guy who thinks laws don’t apply to him. What other laws is he breaking and is he packin’ any firepower?
Overall, though, I think giving people ample leeway and an almost kid-gloves treatment ought to be the standard. Innocent until proven guilty, yadda yadda. Traffic stops should be boring as hell, not escalated into action footage (or worse).
That right there. High probability these are the type of people who would pull an Oklahoma City bombing.
Or CDC shooting.
Waiting for backup.
I had me a good belly laugh at this one. SovCit legalese is somehow more tiring than actual legal filings I’ve read.
Yep – those are usually pretty soporific, but at least they are somewhat reality-based (most of the time). The SovCit BS, tho… sheesh.
https://shockwire.bandcamp.com/merch/speed-limit-bumper-sticker-two-pack Add one of these for good measure.
This must be the first time I’ve ever heard of a “Soverign Citizen.” Huh??? This sounds more like a satire than an actual conspiracy.
Wesley Snipes ended up in prison over this goofy nonsense. It’s more widespread than you think. I see at least one of these loons a week in my metropolitan Midwest city.
Time to check out the video Sovereign Citizen vs P. Barnes
Had an argument with a sovereign citizen today actually. He doesn’t believe that our state has the right to tell him he can’t SA his less than 10y.o. granddaughters before forcing them to marry his 60+y.o. buddies. F*cking bastard should not have been released onto parole but as I say to everyone I work with, the board of pardons is their own religion. So now I have to do everything I can to keep the d*ckhead from going anywhere near any potential victims. Sadly he’s not the worst one I have to supervise right now.
“It’s worth mentioning that Walmart is like Amazon in that they allow third-party sellers, which this definitely could be. That makes it a little less egregious, I suppose, but it’s still being sold via Walmart’s site, whether it comes from a third-party seller or not. Maybe that makes a difference? I don’t know.”
It is right on the page, just out of frame in your screen shots.
Sold and shipped by FUN SALES AND SERVICE, INTERNATIONAL, INC.
They’ve definitely taken down other merchandise they’ve found objectionable. No reason they couldn’t take this down, except they like getting their cut.