The Darker Side Of Freedom

Way back in 2017, I read a story about Mark McKenzie, a Manchester man trying to claim that he was exempted from paying his local council tax because, he was was a "freeman on the land" 

Freeman on The Land ID Card ....

.... and that as such, he and others were only subject to English laws if they 'consented to them'. He claimed that he had this right as a "freeman on the land."

The court laughed this claim off as "pseudo-legal mumbo jumbo," and sentenced him to a total of 54 days imprisonment (concurrent, so only 40 days in all). They also ordered him to pay the £7,000 council tax arrears that had accrued since October 2010, when he had stopped paying the tax ... whether he did pay up I can't determine.

Apparently a similar defence was used by lightweight boxer Oliver Pinnock, who was jailed for 25 days after failing in a bid to use the Magna Carta to avoid paying almost £900 council tax to Southend Council on the south coast of England, also in May 2017 ... thus proving that it was an "urban myth" that archaic laws mean people can avoid council tax, or not follow other laws that they considered unfair.

And that seemed to be that, and I never posted the story or expanded it, as it just seemed to be a couple of people, trying it on in court. However it appears that from little acorns mighty oaks can grow .... I was wrong, it seems that they were just an early UK tendril, of a movement that started in the US, and that has now taken root in the UK amongst the anti-vaxxers, as the 'sovereign citizens' movement.

Magna Carta - Many False Claims Made About Clauses

The basis of this movement in both the USA and UK is the Magna Carta, signed in 1215 AD (which they claim is the basis of English Common Law - not exactly true). In the original draft of the Magna Carta, clause 61, which said amongst other things, that representatives of the Barons, could seize property in order to redress grievances with the crown, until such grievances were addressed. This included, so the sovereign citizens claim, the right of freemen to help them.

"Any man who so desires may take an oath to obey the commands of the twenty-five barons for the achievement of these ends, and to join with them in assailing us to the utmost of his power. We give public and free permission to take this oath to any man who so desires, and at no time will we prohibit any man from taking it. Indeed, we will compel any of our subjects who are unwilling to take it to swear it at our command". 

Now the problem is that whilst the Magna Carta was the basis of English Law, only four parts of Magna Carta actually remain valid today - including the right to a fair and timely trial. For instance Clause 61 (or Article 61 as these people prefer to cite it), was in fact only for the Barons, and was removed within one year in 1216 AD, and thus has not been valid since. Of the four clauses still cited in English Law, none allows citizens to decide which laws should apply to them.

But the anti-vaxxers and affiliated believers, are not noted for their obedience to any law, nor indeed their understanding of it ... so for them belief in 'Article 61' remains as, well, an article of faith, especially in both far right-wing, and even left-wing anti-establishment groups. So despite the fact that it has no legal standing in the UK, this article is held up as "the one true law" and seen as justification for a rebellion against the legal and political "elites".

So they continue to think that they can opt out of the law by not consenting, in the same manner that some people think they can opt out of science and vaccines .... well, whenever these cases come to court, they always find out that they are very wrong. So for instance Sinead Quinn, who owned a hair salon in Oakenshaw near Bradford, and in the window of which, she had a poster that declared that 'Article 61 of Magna Carta' allowed her to opt out of the Covid restriction law, and that she "does not consent". 

She had then defied coronavirus restrictions, but by 2021 she had been fined large amounts that had mounted up to nearly £20,000 in police Fixed Penalty Notices, as she continually failed to comply to the enforcement officers instructions. However this fine amount was somewhat offset by fellow supporters raising over £10,000 (and still rising), in an on-line GoFund fund she set up. As of May 2022 she was yet to pay an £8,436 fine, imposed after £17,000 in fixed penalty notice fines were dropped in August 2021. 

Letter To Court

She didn't attend the 2021 court hearing, but sent in a letter along with the unopened court summons.  The letter included a fingerprint in ink, which the court assumed to be hers, as well as an assertion that  “The woman Sinead does not accept the role of defendant.” ... the court hearing proceeded without her. She could face seizure of goods (ironically by the sheriffs men - freemen helping the barons?) or imprisonment.

This same view has even crossed the English border, and in Scotland (where the legal system has some differences, which includes the fact that the Magna Carta strictly speaking doesn't apply, as it was English Barons and English Kings), Steve Higginson a man from Fife, told the Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court in February 2021 that he did not recognise its authority, saying "I am a living man, the blood flows, the flesh moves - I wish for remedy". He was in court accused of driving without insurance and a valid MOT (as well as other more serious violent offences) on January 15 this year, as he claimed he did not need them. 

Oddly his defence (he was representing himself by the way), not only referred to the Magna Carta, but also Australian and Canadian law among other sources. This must have been quite a defence ! But all to no avail ...  Sheriff Brown dismissed his submission, telling him: “Whoever drafted this does not have the slightest understanding of this or any other system of law,” and found Higginson guilty on various charges, including repeatedly struggling violently with the police, and lashing out with his arms at Kirkcaldy’s JP court, spitting at police, and also behaving in a threatening and abusive manner at the town’s police station, as well as driving without insurance and a valid MOT certificate. 

When sentenced he repeatedly asked the sheriff what jurisdiction he had, as he received a three months prison term. He also refused to wear a face-mask in court, saying, “There’s no Covid, it’s a massive fraud,” and as he was led away to the cells he shouted that “This is a kangaroo court and you ken [know] it. It’s disgusting. I know who you are.”

The there was Aaron Walton, who ran/runs the Holey Skin tattoo parlour in Gloucester Road, Bristol, England, but who repeatedly ignored Covid-19 closure notices, and even reopened his studio regardless of an earlier visit from an enforcement officer, citing a ‘Magna Carta’ defence. He and four other people at the premises were fined £200 each by police for breaching Covid regulations.

But in August 2021 after his refusal's to pay up, or attend court etc, he was fined £10,000 for failing to comply with a notice prohibiting opening, a further £2,500 for obstructing a Bristol City Council enforcement officer, as well as £8,174.94 of the council’s prosecution costs, and a £190 victim surcharge. Whether he ever paid any of this large amount off, is entirely another question. However it was reported in December 2021, that he was also with a bunch of Anti-Vaxxers / Sovereign Citizen extremists who stormed Aintree Hospital in Liverpool, trying to prevent Covid sufferers being treated and accusing staff of 'aiding genocide'.

In a similar vein, Paul Brittain, a resident of Ingleby, Barwick in Teeside claimed to be "a man on the land" in order to try and get round a planning breach (he had ignored local planning permissions, in order to install a Juliet balcony and French doors at his detached home), but was then hit with a court bill totalling almost £1,000 from Stockton Council in January 2021. He told a court he "didn't consent" to the council or court's authority. His defence was that:

"The police, the courts and the councils are private limited companies, and I want to know how you trade with each other. I want to know where you get your authority from, because I didn't consent to it. I can't afford to put the window in, my family are in dire straights and I have gone into survival mode. It's not like I've built a skyscraper or anything monotonous like the council have." 

At an earlier hearing, he had suggested that because his family had moved back into his home he was being punished. He said: "I have been down the council for some help, you don't get it, there's a thing called austerity and bedroom tax", and that "It's almost like there's a depopulation programme." He had also declared himself "a man on the land" at another earlier hearing. So far no legal defence based on so-called 'freeman on the land, sovereign citizen or legal name fraud theory' has ever succeeded in an English (or Scottish) court. 

In the USA, Sovereign Citizen theory - which maintains that the individual is independent of the state, and can therefore ignore its laws - has been around for a longer period, and is seen as a domestic terrorism threat by the FBI in the United States. The continued belief in it, is partly stupidity, partly ignorance of the law, and partly bad advice by people with an agenda and a willingness to spread false news (and create discourse).

This depopulation theme also plays into one which the anti-vaxxers have also espouse,d about the use of the Covid-19 vaccinations to kill off citizens .... Now all this would be laughable ("Look at the imbeciles Mommy ... idiocracy and backward devolution at work"), if this was all just on social media, or even peaceful protests, but this is all evolving in to a far darker and uglier movement.

US and UK Sovereign citizen activists have also been issuing fake legal "writs" outside schools, and even inside hospitals, or outside politicians' homes, police stations, vaccination centres, and the homes of celebrities such as ex-footballer Alan Shearer, who have publicly supported vaccines. These fake legal papers call for the recipient to stop promoting or administering Covid vaccines. They threaten prosecution for violating the Nuremberg Code against human experimentation, which they serve with "notice of liability for harm and death".  .... another piece of legal garbage. 

Again laughable, but it has taken a darker turn recently with the dissemination of "vaccine genocide" videos on social media, and some of the activists having sought to remove Covid patients from intensive care wards, citing non-existent "common law" empowering them to do so. Two Covid patients were taken out of hospitals in Liverpool and Milton Keynes, both against the advice of doctors and nurses.

The incident in Liverpool's Aintree University Hospital was videoed, and showed activists boasting of their legal jurisdiction as "common law constables," as they told staff and police they were under "open arrest" .... to the shame of the authorities, only one of these idiots was arrested. In Eire an elderly Covid patient was taken out of a hospital, and taken home by a man also citing a combination of anti-vaccine and sovereign citizen beliefs. The patient was finally returned to hospital after two days, but then sadly died. 

Common Law Court ID Card

This is idea of "common law constables," is because some of the activists have established an online "common law court" which allows followers to register as "living men and women," and then issues IDs and services to sovereign citizen followers, some of whom are encouraged to attend training to qualify as "common law constables", which they falsely believe grants powers akin to, or even higher than, those of the police. 

Alpha Men Assemble Training For Direct Action

But its the formation of groups such as the Alpha Men Assemble in the UK (and which has described itself as "free thinking men and women living as sovereign beings under common law"), and which combines both anti-vaccine and sovereign citizen beliefs, which are more troublesome. They advocate "direct action", which perhaps raises the most concern. This is now looking like the start of the sort of para-military groups, that are often considered potential terrorists by the FBI in the USA. 

The UK Alpha Men have already organised training sessions in several locations, where up to 100 volunteers are prepared for "direct action", such as breaking through police lines, marching formations, and boxing / sparring. It posts footage of the training sessions on-line, but claims that they reject violence, and are in favour of "body autonomy", with its training events described as "non-combative and are in no way to be linked to any militia or extremism" .... 

Freedom of conscience in the West, also carries the responsibility to behave in a democratic and non violent manner under the rule of law .... but the fact is that our toleration of anti-vaxxers 'rights' has encouraged them and those with similar beliefs to get ever more extreme. We reap what we sow.