I eagerly await Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly’s thoughts on Scott Richardson, a Sovereign Citizen in Texas who was pulled over for speeding and refused to comply with an officer’s orders.
In the video below, we see that after being stopped for going 10 miles over the speed limit in Addison, Texas, Richardson immediately starts talking over the police officer, demanding his name and badge number. The officer identifies himself and asks for Richardson’s license and proof of insurance.
Richardson replies: “Let me ask you a question. As a man, what right do you have to stop another man?”
The officer again asks for his license and registration. Richardson again repeats his question.
Officer: “The State of Texas has given me the right to enforce the law .” He goes on to say explain that Richardson has broken the law by speeding.
Richardson interrupts: “I’m speeding? Did you realize that in the State of Texas, speeding in and of itself is not illegal?”
Officer again asks for license and proof of insurance.
Richardson: “Well...”
Officer again asks for license and proof of insurance saying “otherwise, I’m going to charge you with failure to identify.”
Richardson: “Mmmmkay, I’m still having to ask you a question…”
Officer: “That’s not how this works…”
Richardson interrupts: “That is how it works…” he then demands that the officer answer his question about what gives him the right to pull him over or call his supervisor if he isn't willing to comply.
This goes on and on.
Richardson starts ‘educating’ the officer about the Texas Constitution. He says “do you have a warrant for my arrest?” and 'explains' that if the officer doesn’t he has no right to ask for any ID.
They continue arguing back and forth about the officer’s right to do his job.
The officer calls for backup. He remains calm and continues to request license and proof of insurance.
Richardson continues to do his whackado Sovereign Citizen spiel about how his rights are being violated.
Eventually things escalate as the cop starts becoming more frustrated by Richardson’s complete refusal to comply and general assholery. He asks Richardson to step out of the car. Richardson refuses. The officer then reaches for his BATON (not taser, not gun) and threatens to break the window. Richardson reiterates his demand that the officer call his supervisor.
It goes on and on until the window is finally broken (by the baton) and Richardson is pulled out of the car, handcuffed and charged with “failure to identify”.
It should have been fairly clear to the cop from early on that he was dealing with a Sovereign Citizen type. The type who is armed and possibly very dangerous. Yet never once did the officer seem in 'fear of his life or safety'.
In fairness, the officer involved may truly be one of the Good Cops we so often hear about but rarely see on video. I can’t help but wonder, however, how the same situation might have played out if Richardson had been a person of color. Just kidding! We all know that a person of color would have to have a death wish to do what Richardson did.
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Video is courtesty of Richardson himself who posted it with the following description: Addison Cop violating my rights when I refused to SUBMIT to his bogus claims. Brown v Texas - Officers CAN NOT demand a person to self identify unless then cops has seen them in a commission of a Felony. I was just going from point A to B... this is at 9:30 am on a Saturday morning going to work...
Updated to add more info about the Sovereign Citizen movement. According the Southern Poverty Law Center:
Tactics
The weapon of choice for sovereign citizens is paper. A simple traffic violation or pet-licensing case can end up provoking dozens of court filings containing hundreds of pages of pseudo-legal nonsense. For example, a sovereign was involved in 2010 in a protracted legal battle over having to pay a dog-licensing fee. She filed 10 sovereign documents in court over a two-month period and then declared victory when the harried prosecutor decided to drop the case. The battle was fought over a three-year dog license that in Pinellas County, Fla., where the sovereign lives, costs just $20. Tax cases are even worse. Sovereign filings in such legal battles can quickly exceed a thousand pages. While a normal criminal case docket might have 60 or 70 entries, many involving sovereigns have as many as 1,200. The courts are struggling to keep up, and judges, prosecutors and public defenders are being swamped.
Violence
When a sovereign feels particularly desperate, angry, battle-weary and cornered, his next government contact, no matter how minor, can be his final straw. The resulting rage can be lethal. In 1995 in Ohio, a sovereign named Michael Hill pulled a gun on an officer during a traffic stop. Hill was killed. In 1997, New Hampshire extremist Carl Drega shot dead two officers and two civilians, and wounded another three officers before being killed himself. In that same year in Idaho, when brothers Doug and Craig Broderick were pulled over for failing to signal, they killed one officer and wounded another before being killed themselves in a violent gun battle. In December 2003, members of the Bixby family, who lived outside of Abbeville, S.C., killed two law enforcement officers in a dispute over a small sliver of land next to their home. And in May 2010, Jerry and Joseph Kane, a father and son sovereign team, shot to death two West Memphis, Ark., police officers who had pulled them over in a routine traffic stop. Later that day, the Kanes were killed in a fierce shootout with police that wounded two other officers.