When Sovereign Citizens Snap

[DonViejo]

Police came to evict Mark Kulis—and found a home wired to explode. It’s the latest incident for a movement that rejects the government, with members who have been turning to violence.

Sheriff’s deputies waited until Mark Kulis left home before delivering eviction papers to his house Wednesday. They’d heard reports the 55-year-old was dangerous, but they didn’t expect that his house in Ohio’s Franklin County would be. Kulis’s oven was booby-trapped with an explosive, and there were four more in his bedroom closet, and even more bomb-making materials scattered throughout the house, according to police reports. Scrawled across the walls and ceilings of his home were names of politicians, including President Obama and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and declarations of sovereignty. When the police found and arrested Kulis, he was at a car wash half a mile from his house, armed with a loaded Colt .38-caliber revolver. (Kulis was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and manufacturing dangerous ordnance; a lawyer for Kulis couldn’t be reached for comment.)

At the time that Kulis was meant to be evicted, there was a probate warrant pending to take him to an emergency mental-health center. He also considered himself a sovereign citizen. Whether one thing had anything to do with the other is undetermined, but Kulis’s scrawlings affiliated him with a 200,000- to 500,000-member movement that the FBI has called one of America’s leading domestic terrorist threats. Members of the movement are united by the belief that they should not be required to obey laws or pay taxes if they don’t want to (and they usually don’t want to). 


Sovereign citizens are notoriously more litigious than they are violent, willing to engage in lengthy legal battles and flood local court systems with hundreds of pages of filings written in their own nonsensical language—just to avoid paying a simple parking ticket or for a dog license. They have used legal documents as a weapon against enemies, filing fake tax forms or property liens to get a foe audited, destroy their credit, or sabotage a property sale.

One sovereign citizen named Robert Carr was indicted by a grand jury in December of last year for attempting to steal 11 Cincinnati area homes by breaking in, changing the locks, and filing secret court documents to claim ownership.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/17/when-sovereign-citizens-snap.html

[JNelson6563]

1. 200,000 to 500,000 like minded lunatics? That's distressing.

[tblue]

2. Criminally insane

Definitely 5150. This is domestic terrorism and insanity. Get them off the street. They need professional help.

[davidpdx]

3. No doubt on the 5150

The guy should be given mental health treatment, then put on trial when he is sane. It's a good thing the police knew what was waiting for them. That is just insane.

[NCLefty]

4. Much of it is merely indoctrination, I'm sure.

Like religion.

"My daddy and mommy told me this so it's true, forever."