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Shop NowThe Fulton County Marshal’s Department, heavily armed with riot gear and assault weapons, recently evicted some mansion squatters. They got such special treatment because they dared to utter the deplorable phrase, “sovereign citizen.” That set them apart from all the other garden variety anarchists which infested the state of Georgia. Like that little turtle guy who tried to stop cops from having a training center. The “protester” took a few sniper shots at police from inside his tent before they shot him dead. He still wasn’t considered as much of a threat as these interlopers.
Not regular squatters
Squatters have been terrorizing America for some time now, especially in the bluer states. In Georgia, one group actually dared to declare themselves “sovereign citizens.” It was their huge mistake. Suddenly, they’re automatically considered armed and dangerous insurrectionists.
While the state recently decided to take some action about the illegal takeover of private property and put a few teeth into their eviction laws, not everyone gets the same treatment.
Authorities have some discretion in how they go about handling incidents on a case-by-case basis. The typical dodge involves the invaders making a trip to the local office supply store to forge a bogus lease agreement. They can tie the courts up for months with one of those and nobody makes a big deal about it.
Once the end of the legal process hits, local cops will escort the squatters out. Unless they start throwing around extreme-MAGA conservative phrases willy-nilly. If they think you might be a Donald Trump supporter they haul out the heavy artillery.
As described by New York Post, “authorities armed with rifles descended on a sprawling north Atlanta mansion to kick out squatters that were possibly associated with the sovereign citizens movement.”
While not as popular now as it was in the previous millennium, people continue to get burned by the misinformation saturating the internet. This author has personally provided legal counsel to many of them in a previous career. (And once had to have a case of grenades moved off the couch to sit down for paperwork prep. The house was best described as a two bedroom arsenal.)
Stay below the radar
Typically, ultra-conservative lovers of the constitution would stumble on a word salad of legal terms, all jumbled together out of context and leading people to believe they can successfully evade paying taxes, registering their cars, or similar benefits. None of our former clients tried to become squatters, They preferred the “homesteading” route.
My job was helping them negotiate the least amount of penalties when the heat eventually came down hard on them. Financial and prison wise. It is possible to live within the “sovereign citizen” principals but doing it right is extremely difficult.
If you don’t want to pay taxes you can’t have any income. Favors aren’t as easy to tax. You can become ordained and accept donations. Or incorporate. If you don’t want a license plate identifying you to big brother, instead of writing “FREMEN” on a piece of cardboard, drive a vehicle owned in someone else’s name. The quick and dirty ways folks rely on from the internet don’t work at all. They only make things worse. The Georgia mansion occupiers just learned that valuable lesson.
The serious sovereign citizen works diligently to stay below the radar and not attract attention. The ordinary, garden variety anarchists who moved into a mansion they didn’t own, must have discovered the old internet sites. The squatters thought they found a loophole to allow them to keep living there rent free forever.
The Fulton County Marshal’s Department “raided the gated 15,000-square-foot home.” They came in to remove the “unauthorized occupants,” with “police shields and long guns.” These weren’t ordinary scofflaw anarchists. “The department said it took additional precautions because officials received indications the squatters might identify with the anti-government movement sovereign citizens.”
Using a conservative phrase like that was so potentially dangerous that “authorities also used a drone to survey the massive property and locate any tenants.” It’s been a growing problem but generally ignored until recently. “While property owners have the right to evict squatters, they must follow legal procedures.” The hoop jumping all favors the illegal occupants. Unless they might be extreme-far right.
