Posse Comitatus (organization)

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The Posse Comitatus (Latin, "force of the county") [1] is a loosely organized American far-right extremist social movement which began in the late 1960s. Its members spread a conspiracy-minded, anti-government, and antisemitic message linked to white supremacy aiming to counter what they believe is an attack on their social and political rights as white Christians. [2] : 591 

Contents

Many Posse members practiced survivalism and played a role in the formation of armed citizens' militias in the 1990s. The Posse Comitatus pioneered the use of false liens and other types of "paper terrorism" to harass their opponents by mounting frivolous legal actions against them. [3] As the Posse Comitatus began their decline in popularity at the turn of the 21st century, their tactics and ideology evolved into those of the Christian Patriot movement and the sovereign citizen movement. [4]

Historical background

Due to the strong ties that they forged with the white supremacist Christian Identity movement, members of the Posse Comitatus believe that they are the true Israelites, the people who were chosen by God. They state that the Jews seek to help Satan destroy civilization and undermine white citizens' rights through the Federal Reserve and the Internal Revenue Service. [2] : 591 

Posse charters were first issued in Portland, Oregon in 1969 by Henry Lamont Beach, "a retired dry cleaner and a one-time member of the Silver Shirts, a Nazi-inspired and clerical fascist organization which was established in America after Hitler took power in Germany." [5] One expert has considered William Potter Gale the founder of the movement. [6] : 2 

Posse members believe that there is no legitimate form of government above that of the county level and no higher law authority than the county sheriff. [7] If the sheriff refuses to carry out the will of the county's citizens: "he shall be removed by the Posse to the most populated intersection of streets in the township and at high noon be hung by the neck, the body remaining until sundown as an example to those who would subvert the law." [8] [9]

Christian Identity

Some Posse members embraced the antisemitic and white supremacist beliefs of Christian Identity. [10] Some believe that the U.S. federal government is illegitimate and in the hands of a Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG), the supposed international Jewish conspiracy. [2] : 758 Christian Posse Comitatus Newsletter has reported, "Our nation is now completely under the control of the International Invisible government of the World Jewry." [11]

Federal taxes

Members of the Posse Comitatus frequently refuse to pay taxes, obtain driver's licenses, or comply with regulatory authorities. They deny the validity of United States fiat money because it is not backed by gold, which they claim the Constitution requires. [2] : 591 

They draw up unusual legal documents and attempt to record them, they declare their independence from the United States, or they claim to file "common law" liens against their perceived enemies such as Internal Revenue Service employees or judges. They are frequently involved in various tax protests, and they have invoked ideas that have been popularized by tax protesters. [2] : 591 

Criminal activities

The Posse Comitatus made national news when, on February 13, 1983, Posse member Gordon Kahl killed two federal marshals who had come to arrest him in North Dakota and became a fugitive. Another shootout ensued on June 3, 1983, in which Kahl and Lawrence County, Arkansas, Sheriff Gene Matthews were killed. Other members of the group have also been convicted of crimes ranging from tax evasion and counterfeiting to threatening the lives of IRS agents and judges.

On October 23, 1984, Posse member Arthur Kirk, 49, was killed in a raid on his home. [12]

The organization also demonstrated support for its members over other issues. On September 2, 1975, Francis Earl Gillings, the founder of a San Joaquin County Posse group, led a group of armed Posse members to prevent United Farm Workers union organizers from attempting to organize non-union tomato pickers. As sheriff's deputies attempted to arrest Gillings on a traffic warrant, one got into a scuffle with Gillings, and a shot was fired. [13]

On August 16, 2012, five suspects were arrested concerning the fatal shooting of two sheriff's deputies (Deputies Brandon Nielsen and Jeremy Triche) and wounding two others (Deputies Michael Scott Boyington and Jason Triche) in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. Terry Smith, 44; Brian Smith, 24; Derrick Smith, 22; Teniecha Bright, 21; and Kyle David Joekel, 28, were identified, with Brian Smith and Joekel (who was wounded by Deputy Charles "Chip" Wale) identified as the shooters in the incident. The men are rumored to be affiliated with a Posse Comitatus group. [14] On August 17, 2012, two more suspects—Chanel Skains, 37, and Britney Keith, 23—were charged with accessory after the fact. [15]

Legacy

Christian Patriot movement

The direct ideological descendants of the Posse Comitatus movement were found in the "Christian Patriot" branch of the Patriot movement. Most Christian Patriot groups adhere to Christian Identity's white supremacist views and the Posse Comitatus' view that the American government had deprived citizens of their natural "common law" rights. They have notably espoused Gale's concept of "individual sovereignty", which developed into the broader sovereign citizen movement. [16] [17]

Sovereign citizens

The legal theories of Posse Comitatus have been further developed by the sovereign citizen movement, which claims that a U.S. citizen can become a "sovereign citizen" and thereby be subject only to common law or "constitutional law," not to statutory law (including most taxes). The Uniform Commercial Code plays a part in these legal theories. [18] The term "sovereign citizen" began to supplant the name "Posse Comitatus" by the late 1990s, mirroring movement members' renewed focus on personal liberty. [19]

Some within the movement see African Americans, who only gained legal citizenship after the Civil War and passage of the 14th Amendment, as "14th Amendment citizens" with fewer rights than whites. [20] However, African American groups have adopted sovereign citizen ideology and developed a version of the movement's beliefs. [21]

The sovereign citizen movement in turn gave rise to the "redemption movement," which claims that the U.S. government has enslaved its citizens by using them as collateral against the foreign debt. [4] Redemption scheme promoters sell instructions explaining how citizens can "free" themselves by filing particular government forms in a particular order using particular wording. [22] [23] The movement "has earned its promoters untold profits, buried courts and other agencies under tons of worthless paper, and led to scores of arrests and convictions." [24]

Sovereign citizen ideology eventually spread to Canada where it gave birth during the 2000s to a local offshoot known as the freeman on the land movement. [25]

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) classifies some sovereign citizens ("extreme sovereign citizen extremists") as a domestic terrorist movement. [26] In 2010 the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) estimated that approximately 100,000 Americans were "hard-core sovereign believers" with another 200,000 "just starting out by testing sovereign techniques for resisting everything from speeding tickets to drug charges." [27]

Alpine County, California

In the late 1970s, the Posse Comitatus attempted to take over Alpine County, California, by settling there and fielding candidates in local elections. [6] : 164 

Alpine County is in the Sierra Nevada Mountains east of Stockton on the west and east slope of Ebbetts Pass on State Highway 4. The 2010 population is 1,175 people. The posse thought winning local elections in Alpine County was their best opportunity to take control of a single county. The group fielded a candidate for sheriff and registered fictitious voters using post office boxes and vacant lots as their addresses. Six people were prosecuted for voter fraud, the false registration thrown out, and the incumbent sheriff was re-elected. [28]

Tigerton, Wisconsin

The posse had a presence in Tigerton, Wisconsin, until a crackdown by government prosecutors in the early 1980s left many of the group's leaders imprisoned. [29] [30]

See also

Related Research Articles

Christian Identity is an interpretation of Christianity which advocates the belief that only Celtic and Germanic peoples, such as the Anglo-Saxon, Nordic nations, or the Aryan race and kindred peoples, are the descendants of the ancient Israelites and are therefore God's "chosen people". It is a racial interpretation of Christianity and is not an organized religion, nor is it affiliated with specific Christian denominations. It emerged from British Israelism in the 1920s and developed during the 1940s-1970s. Today it is practiced by independent individuals, independent congregations, and some prison gangs.

Gordon Wendell Kahl was an American World War II veteran and farmer who was known for being a one-time member of the Posse Comitatus movement and for his involvement in two fatal shootouts with law enforcement officers in the United States in 1983.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Patriot movement</span> American Christian political movement

The Christian Patriot movement is a subset of the broader American Patriot movement that promotes Christian nationalism and emphasizes it as its core goal and philosophy. Like the larger Patriot movement, it promotes an interpretation of American history in which the federal government has turned against the ideas of liberty and natural rights expressed in the American Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sovereign citizen movement</span> Anti-government, anti-taxation conspiracy theorists

The sovereign citizen movement is a loose group of anti-government activists, litigants, tax protesters, financial scammers, and conspiracy theorists based mainly in the United States. Sovereign citizens have their own pseudolegal belief system based on misinterpretations of common law and claim to not be subject to any government statutes unless they consent to them. The movement appeared in the United States in the early 1970s and has since expanded to other countries; the similar freeman on the land movement emerged during the 2000s in Canada before spreading to other Commonwealth countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The FBI describes sovereign citizens as "anti-government extremists who believe that even though they physically reside in this country, they are separate or 'sovereign' from the United States".

The Montana Freemen were an anti-government Christian Patriot militia based outside the town of Jordan, Montana, United States. The members of the group referred to their land as "Justus Township" and had declared their leaders and followers "sovereign citizens" no longer under the authority of any outside government. They became the center of public attention in 1996 when they engaged in a prolonged armed standoff with agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Mark Pitcavage is a historian and analyst of far-right wing groups. He works with the Anti-Defamation League and was the creator of the now-archived Militia Watchdog website. The site has been an archive since 2000 when Pitcavage took the position of Director of Fact Finding for the Anti-Defamation League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American militia movement</span> Political movement of paramilitary groups in the US

American militia movement is a term used by law enforcement and security analysts to refer to a number of private organizations that include paramilitary or similar elements. These groups may refer to themselves as militia, unorganized militia, and constitutional militia. While groups such as the Posse Comitatus existed as early as the 1980s, the movement gained momentum after standoffs with government agents in the early 1990s. By the mid-1990s, such groups were active in all 50 US states, with membership estimated at between 20,000 and 60,000. The movement is most closely associated with the American right-wing. Most modern organizations calling themselves militias are illegal private paramilitary organizations laws that require official sanctioning of a state government in order to be constitutional. While a common belief among members of modern paramilitary groups is that the constitution protects the ability of citizens to have the capability to overthrow the government by force when seen tyrannical, the Supreme Court has ruled differently.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patriot movement</span> American conservative political movement

In the United States, the patriot movement is a term which is used to describe a conglomeration of non-unified right-wing populist and nationalist political movements, most notably far-right armed militias, sovereign citizens, and tax protesters. Ideologies held by patriot movement groups often focus on anti-government conspiracy theories, with the SPLC describing a common belief that "despise the federal government and/or question its legitimacy." The movement first emerged in 1994 in response to what members saw as "violent government repression" of dissenting groups, along with increased gun control and the Clinton administration.

<i>Posse comitatus</i> Aspect of common law

The posse comitatus, frequently shortened to posse, is in common law a group of people mobilized to suppress lawlessness, defend the people, or otherwise protect the place, property, and public welfare. It may be called by the conservator of peace – typically a reeve, sheriff, chief, or another special/regional designee like an officer of the peace potentially accompanied by or with the direction of a justice or ajudged parajudicial process given the imminence of actual damage. The posse comitatus as an English jurisprudentially defined doctrine dates back to 9th-century England and the campaigns of Alfred the Great, and before in ancient custom and law of locally martialed forces, simultaneous thereafter with the officiation of sheriff nomination to keep the regnant peace. There must be a lawful reason for a posse, which can never be used for lawlessness.

The redemption movement is an element of the pseudolaw movement, mainly active in the United States and Canada, that promotes fraudulent debt and tax payment schemes. The movement is also called redemptionism. Redemption promoters allege that a secret fund is created for every citizen at birth and that a procedure exists to "redeem" or reclaim this fund to pay bills. Common redemption schemes include acceptance for value (A4V), Treasury Direct Accounts (TDA) and secured party creditor "kits," collections of pseudolegal tactics sold to participants despite a complete lack of any actual legal basis. Such tactics are sometimes called "money for nothing" schemes, as they propose to extract money from the government by using secret methods. The name of the A4V scheme in particular has become synonymous with the movement as a whole.

James Paul Wickstrom was an American white supremacist, far-right activist, and Christian Identity minister. He was a founding member of the Posse Comitatus, an antisemitic, anti-government and anti-tax group associated with the broader militia movement. He was strongly anti-communist, and he frequently advocated the genocide of Jews, non-European Americans, "race traitors," homosexuals, and drug addicts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oath Keepers</span> American far-right organization since 2009

Oath Keepers is an American far-right anti-government militia whose leaders have been convicted of violently opposing the government of the United States, including the transfer of presidential power as prescribed by the United States constitution. It was incorporated in 2009 by founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes, a lawyer and former paratrooper. In 2023, Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack, and another Oath Keepers leader, Kelly Meggs, was sentenced to 12 years for the same crime. Three other members have pleaded guilty to this crime, and four other members have been convicted of it.

David Wynn Miller, also styled :David-Wynn: Miller or David-Wynn: Miller, was an American pseudolegal theorist, self-proclaimed judge and leader of a tax protester group within the sovereign citizen movement. Originally a tool and die welder, Miller is best known as the creator of "Quantum Grammar", a version of the English language to be used by people involved in judicial proceedings. He asserted that this constructed language, which is purportedly based on mathematics and includes unorthodox grammar, spelling, punctuation, and syntax, constitutes the only "correct" form of communication in legal processes. People seeking remedy with Miller's syntax in court have not met with success. His language is incomprehensible to most people and the pleadings that use it are routinely rejected by courts as gibberish. Since Miller's death, "Quantum Grammar" has seen continued usage by other people within the sovereign citizen movement.

"Paper terrorism" is a neologism referring to the use of false liens, frivolous lawsuits, bogus letters of credit, and other legal or pseudolegal documents lacking sound factual basis as a method of harassment against an opponent on a scale described as evocative of conventional armed terrorism. These methods are popular among some American anti-government groups and those associated with the redemption movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Three Percenters</span> American and Canadian far-right militia group

The Three Percenters are an American and Canadian far-right anti-government militia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association</span> US political organization of local police officials

The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) is a political organization of local police officials in the United States who contend that federal and state government authorities are subordinate to the local authority of county sheriffs and police. Self-described constitutional sheriffs assert that they are the supreme legal authority with the power and duty to defy or disregard laws they regard as unconstitutional. As a result, they may sometimes be referred to as sovereign sheriffs. The movement is related to previous nullification and interposition notions, and promotes such efforts. It has been described as far-right by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The CSPOA has claimed a membership of 400.

Pseudolaw consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that are claimed to be based on accepted law or legal doctrine but have no actual basis in law and are generally rooted in conspiracy theories. Pseudolegal arguments deviate significantly from most conventional understandings of law and jurisprudence and often originate from non-existent statutes or legal principles the advocate or adherent incorrectly believes exist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strawman theory</span> Pseudolegal conspiracy theory associated with fringe movements

The strawman theory is a pseudolegal conspiracy theory originating in the redemption/A4V movement and prevalent in antigovernment and tax protester movements such as sovereign citizens and freemen on the land. The theory holds that an individual has two personas, one of flesh and blood and the other a separate legal personality and that one's legal responsibilities belong to the strawman rather than the physical individual.

William Potter Gale (1916–1988) was an American political activist who was involved with several white supremacist groups, including Christian Identity and the Posse Comitatus. He had connections to the Church of Jesus Christ–Christian, Aryan Nations, the sovereign citizen movement, and the militia movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rocky Mountain Rendezvous (1992)</span>

The Rocky Mountain Rendezvous was an October 1992 meeting in Estes Park, Colorado of 150 to 175 adherents and leaders of the American militia movement, Patriot movement and the radical right that developed the modern strategy for right-wing terrorism in the United States. The Rendezvous was organized by Christian Identity Pastor Pete Peters in response to the Ruby Ridge standoff two months prior. Concerns included that the United States federal government was a police state engaged in systematic over taxation, wrongful imprisonment and murder of its citizens, described by the meeting as "genocide."

References

  1. ↑ Solodow, Joseph (2010). Latin Alive: The Survival of Latin in English and the Romance Languages. Cambridge University Press. p. 160. ISBN   978-0-521-51575-7 . Retrieved February 19, 2021. Out of the phrase posse comitatus "the force of the county" arose our present use of posse for a group of men whom the sheriff calls upon in a crisis.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Knight, Peter, ed. (2003). Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. ISBN   1-57607-812-4 . Retrieved February 19, 2021.
  3. ↑ Pitcavage, Mark (June 29, 1998). "Paper Terrorism's Forgotten Victims: The Use of Bogus Liens against Private Individuals and Businesses". Anti-Defamation League: Militia Watchdog archives. Archived from the original on September 18, 2002. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
  4. 1 2 Carey, Kevin (July 2008). "Too Weird for The Wire". Washington Monthly . May/June/July 2008. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 19, 2008.
  5. ↑ Corcoran, James (1990). Bitter Harvest: Gordon Kahl and the Posse Comitatus: Murder in the Heartland. New York, NY: Viking Press. p. 29. ISBN   0-670-81561-6 . Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  6. 1 2 Levitas, Daniel (2002). The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right . New York, NY: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN   0-312-29105-1 . Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  7. ↑ Atkins, Stephen (September 13, 2011). Encyclopedia of Right-Wing Extremism In Modern American History. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-Clio. p. 197. ISBN   978-1-59884-350-7 . Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  8. ↑ Smith, Brent L. (1995). Terrorism in America: Pipe Bombs and Pipe Dreams. SUNY Press. pp. 57–58. ISBN   0-7914-1759-X . Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  9. ↑ Pitcavage, Mark (July 25, 1997). "Common Law and Uncommon Courts: An Overview of the Common Law Court Movement". Anti-Defamation League: Militia Watchdog archives. Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  10. ↑ Marks, Kathy (1996). Faces of Right Wing Wxtremism. Branden Publishing Company. p. 146. ISBN   978-0-8283-2016-0 . Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  11. ↑ Christian Posse Comitatus Newsletter, n.d. quoted in Stern, Kenneth S. (1996). A Force upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate . New York: Simon & Schuster. p.  50. ISBN   0-684-81916-3 . Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  12. ↑ "Arthur Kirk". nebraskastudies.org. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
  13. ↑ "U.S. judge Enjoins California From Enforcing Rule Giving Union Aides Access to Farms". The New York Times . September 4, 1975. p. 36. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  14. ↑ Russell, Gordon (August 17, 2012). "Picture of suspects in St. John Parish shootings starting to emerge". The Times-Picayune . Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  15. ↑ Finn, Kathy (August 17, 2012). "Seven charged in shootings that killed Louisiana police officers". New Orleans: Reuters. Archived from the original on August 20, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  16. ↑ Eck, Diane (2001). A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" has become the world's most religiously diverse nation . New York: HarperCollins Publishers. p.  347.
  17. ↑ Buck, Christopher (2009). Religious Myths and Visions of America: How Minority Faiths Redefined America's World Role . Praeger. pp.  107, 108, 213. ISBN   978-0313359590.
  18. ↑ Pitcavage, Mark. "Message to Students: What is a Sovereign Citizen?". Anti-Defamation League: Militia Watchdog archives. adl.org. Archived from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  19. ↑ Hodge, Edwin (November 26, 2019). "The Sovereign Ascendant: Financial Collapse, Status Anxiety, and the Rebirth of the Sovereign Citizen Movement". Frontiers in Sociology. 4: 76. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2019.00076 . PMC   8022456 . PMID   33869398.
  20. ↑ "What is a 'Sovereign Citizen'?". Intelligence Report . Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 2008. Archived from the original on March 5, 2009. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  21. ↑ Pitcavage, Mark. "Message to Students: Are sovereign citizens racist?". Anti-Defamation League: Militia Watchdog archives. adl.org. Archived from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  22. ↑ Netolitzky, Donald (2018). "A Rebellion of Furious Paper: Pseudolaw As a Revolutionary Legal System". SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3177484. ISSN   1556-5068. SSRN   3177484.
  23. ↑ Netolitzky, Donald J. (2018). "Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Arguments as Magic and Ceremony". Alberta Law Review : 1045. doi: 10.29173/alr2485 . ISSN   1925-8356.
  24. ↑ "Beyond Redemption". Intelligence Report . Southern Poverty Law Center. Winter 2002. Archived from the original on October 2, 2006. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  25. ↑ Netolitzky, Donald J. (May 24, 2018). A Pathogen Astride the Minds of Men: The Epidemiological History of Pseudolaw. Sovereign Citizens in Canada symposium. CEFIR. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3177472. SSRN   3177472. Archived from the original on December 23, 2020. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  26. ↑ "Sovereign Citizens A Growing Domestic Threat to Law Enforcement". Federal Bureau of Investigation. September 11, 2011. Retrieved April 30, 2017.[ permanent dead link ]
  27. ↑ MacNab, J. J. (Fall 2010). "'Sovereign' Citizen Kane". Intelligence Report (139). Southern Poverty Law Center . Retrieved April 23, 2021.
  28. ↑ Duncan, Dayton (2000). Miles from Nowhere: Tales from America's Contemporary Frontier. University of Nebraska Press. p. 259. ISBN   0-8032-6627-8 . Retrieved April 23, 2021– via Google Books.
  29. ↑ Imrie, Robert (September 23, 1990). "With Leaders in Jail, Posse Comitatus' Fate Is Uncertain". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  30. ↑ "Posse Comitatus Manual Urged Terrorism, Sheriff Says". Shawano, WI: Associated Press. September 12, 1985. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
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