Courtesy of the Chronicle:
It seemed like a typical congressional meeting for the Republic of Texas. Senators and the president gathered in the center of a Bryan, Texas, meeting hall, surrounded by public onlookers, to debate issues of the national currency, develop international relations and celebrate the birthday of one of their oldest members.
But this wasn't 1836, and this would be no ordinary legislative conference. Minutes into the meeting a man among the onlookers stood and moved to open the hall door, letting in an armed and armored force of the Bryan Police Department, the Brazos County Sheriff's Office, the Kerr County Sheriff's Office, Agents of the Texas District Attorney, the Texas Rangers and the FBI.
In the end, at least 20 officers corralled, searched and fingerprinted all 60 meeting attendees, before seizing all cellphones and recording equipment in a Valentine's Day 2015 raid on the Texas separatist group.
This came as some surprise to the old farts who seemed to think since they had elected themselves senators, land commissioners, and judges that they actually had some kind of power in the state.
The raid was a response to legal summons sent by Republic of Texas members to a Kerr County judge and bank employee, demanding they appear in the Republic's court at the Veterans and Foreign Wars building in Bryan the day the officers stormed in.
"You can't just let people go around filing false documents to judges trying to make them appear in front of courts that aren't even real courts," said Kerr County sheriff Rusty Hierholzer, who led the operation.
He acknowledged he used a "show of force," grouping officers from city, county state and federal law enforcement to serve a search warrant for suspicions of a misdemeanor crime. He said he had worries that some extremists in the group could become violent, citing a 1997 incident when 300 state troopers surrounded an armed Republic leader for a weeklong standoff.
This may seem like an overuse of force, however it should be noted that Alaska's own domestic terrorist Schaeffer Cox attempted similar sovereign citizen fake legal procedures before finally becoming fed up and planning to kidnap and murder judges and state troopers.
Other sovereign citizen groups have also turned to violence.
This is from the Homeland Security report on Sovereign Citizen Extremist violence:
When sovereigns do plan an attack in advance, the report suggests that this tends to be "in direct response to an ongoing personal grievance, such as an arrest or court order." It argues that sovereign citizens are unlikely to pick a symbolic target—like, say, the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City—and that in this way they are distinct from the killers who attacked two randomly selected cops in Las Vegas last year or three TSA officers at an L.A. airport the year before that.
According to this documentary the Republic of Texas group is firmly convinced that the federal and state government has no jurisdiction over the people of Texas, and that they are not required to follow any of their laws. (I mean they even print their own money for fuck's sake.)
Obviously they were wrong.
A show of force against a show of farce.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant!
Delete"to serve a search warrant for suspicions of a misdemeanor crime."
Delete"an armed and armored force of the Bryan Police Department, the Brazos County Sheriff's Office, the Kerr County Sheriff's Office, Agents of the Texas District Attorney, the Texas Rangers and the FBI."
Really? You tell me who the terrorists are.
10:43 AM Why didn't you mention the prior contact with this group where there was a shootout and 1 was killed? Some are serving life sentences. You tell me who the terrorists are, assclown.
DeleteWhy didn't you mention that your heroes used illegal gas to kill over 80 innocent men, women, and children in WACO, or kidnapped over 400 children from their parents. You just aren't too bright are you.
DeleteThere is so much wrong with what your saying its not even funny were not talking about WACO we are talking about the Republic of Texas a group that had nothing to do with Koresh's cult. Take your straw man and keep walking.
DeleteThis group has been known to commit violence in the past in response to rather minor contacts with law enforcement, given that and the fact that they seem to be engaging in Sovereign Citizen behavior it was an excellent idea for the Sheriff to make a "show of force" a.) Nobody got stupid b.) if they want to get stupid in the future they may think twice about it.
The idea is to get the idiots to stop there self destructive behavior before they kill somebody, or in Cox's case end up in prison for a good chunk of there life. While it may not fit in with your I hate the Gooberent view of the world these folks are dangerous and placating them only increases that danger
Was Faux News (or Alex Jones) playing in the background?
ReplyDeletedowl
There are several thing that bother me about this. The number one thing being that our government can go in and raid them. All they did was issue a fake umon to a judge. No death threat, no violence. On their actions they should have never been raided. The fact that the public I okay with that is disconcerting. I don't agree with this group or their ideals but I firmly believe that they can meet and congregate if they are not trying to hurt anyone.
ReplyDeleteI would like to have seen their faces if the judge and bank employee had shown up with WTF? attitudes heehee. I doubt they planned that far in advance.
DeleteThey got raided, mostly because Gryphen left off most of the article or the most important part, a few yrs ago they set up a shoot out with police in that county. They are a known domestic terrorist organization.
Delete1997 where a standoff with the group in Fort Davis Texas resulted in a shootout with Law Enforcement officers where one man was killed and the remainder of the group was convicted and sentenced to life terms in prison.
DeleteThis is a known terrorist group
If you read the original article, an undercover Sheriff's Deputy was inside of the meeting and opened the door for the raid. I am sure that he would know more about their illegal plans and activities than you 5:49 AM,
DeleteWell, if Texas wants out, let's first remove all federal facilities, including military bases, NASA, and all of the other boondoggles given to those nasty people over the years. There are lots of states with citizens who do not complain all the time about paying taxes and who are interested in treating everyone equally to share in the largesse that Texas would lose.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
First of all, a few crazies doesn't mean the whole state wants to secede, anymore than a wacko group speaks for a whole state in any other state.
DeleteSecond of all, this group has been involved with attacks on police, they got what they deserved and they will continue to be watched closely.
Let's cut off all their Federal funding first. I'm tired of my Federal tax dollars being funneled to these bozos.
DeleteWhy should I subsidize a state with no state income tax?
Do these sovereign dumbos ever realize how many dollars are pumped into their state economy by the U.S. Army and Air Force bases located there? We are talking many billions of dollars.
ReplyDeleteThis same group got in a shoot out with the police a few yrs ago.
ReplyDeleteA recent report showed the number one terrorist threat to the US is from its own domestic fundamentalists. - the Sovereign Citizens.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wnem.com/story/28169095/report-domestic-terrorism-huge-threat-to-us
Bet all those old white farts shit their pants and then starting whining about their "rights"
ReplyDeleteThis country is under a plague of attitude that you can do anything you want and not have to pay the consequences. It is infecting millions and spreading like wildfire. I don't know if it is seeping up from our youth or there is an adult faction teaching it to their young, who then spread it around.
But it is more pervasive than any flu. Like the measles it is spread through the air. It doesn't even require contact. And there doesn't seem to be a cure.
Although there are some successes for containment.
We call it prison, after a few good doses of our legal system.
I can only shake my head and mutter "Who do they think they are?" and wonder they really thought they could get away with this.
Yeah, I'll bet they were all shocked and now they are affronted they are being held accountable.
Would love to be a fly on the wall of the courtrooms as each defendant appears before a real judge.
I heard on the nightly news that terrorist groups have been identified in every state and the last to be added to the list was AK. What took them so long? Sarah has been terrorizing the USA for the past 6 years!!!
ReplyDelete12:38 PM:
DeleteBINGO!! lol