FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists
(Reuters) – Anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States, the FBI warned on Monday.
These extremists, sometimes known as “sovereign citizens,” believe they can live outside any type of government authority, FBI agents said at a news conference.
The extremists may refuse to pay taxes, defy government environmental regulations and believe the United States went bankrupt by going off the gold standard.
Routine encounters with police can turn violent “at the drop of a hat,” said Stuart McArthur, deputy assistant director in the FBI’s counterterrorism division.
“We thought it was important to increase the visibility of the threat with state and local law enforcement,” he said.
In May 2010, two West Memphis, Arkansas, police officers were shot and killed in an argument that developed after they pulled over a “sovereign citizen” in traffic.
Last year, an extremist in Texas opened fire on a police officer during a traffic stop. The officer was not hit.
Legal convictions of such extremists, mostly for white-collar crimes such as fraud, have increased from 10 in 2009 to 18 each in 2010 and 2011, FBI agents said.
via FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists | Reuters.
Our governments have very limited time left until everyone else starts realising that we have all been lied to for a very long time.
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Hey Stuart McArthur, deputy assistant director at the FBI’s counter-terrorism division…are you nuts? I concede that the Bureau may have encountered some folks that meant to do LEOs harm…but condemning all Americans who state unequivocally that they are sovereign citizens is idiotic. When I worked in NSD-6 the agents there had more sense than to condemn ALL because of a few. Being a sovereign citizen is NOT a crime. It is a fact that it is YOU, the federal employee, who is the servant and we as sovereign citizens who are in charge. The larger the government the smaller the citizen makes for tyranny. I am ashamed of the position you have taken on this issue. Signed: A Sovereign American Citizen who believes in the rule of law and smaller government.
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Just another excuse to beat the hell out of people.
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