Sovereign movement terrorism

If you ever wanted to break the law and get away with it then you should have read USA Today’s weekend paper. The article titled “If y’all come to get me, bring body bags” talks about felony suspect John Joe Gray and his family compound in Texas, a self-sustained fort.

The subtitle claims that this “Texas standoff is emblematic of the nation’s growing anti-government sovereign movement.”

I say the Texas allowance of criminal groups to stay at large is “emblematic” of the nation’s backward thinking.

Gray and his gun-toting family have outlasted three sheriffs in office and are on their fourth. Oh, by the way, there is no standoff. Police don’t have the woods and the compound surrounded, and members of the Gray family have had photos taken of them leaving the area when they’re not on armed patrols of the property.

These so-called “sovereign citizens” are no more than criminals living with impunity. Sheriff Nutt, the current one, said, “I’m reluctant to talk about it much” and “I just don’t want to stir things up.”

The authorities in Texas are suffering from Waco syndrome. They’re afraid that going after zealots who are armed and in a prepared position will wind up leaving those inside killed or cause harm to the officers. Maybe they need to pull from the CIA and military’s Anwar Awlaki playbook and treat them as military targets, the children not included, obviously.

The number of “patriot” and “militia” organizations are growing and with them these anti-government and anti-law groups. There’s an estimated 100,000 ardent sovereign citizens, 200,000 sympathizers and 1,274 militias in the United States, most of which are armed and believe they are immune from any legal action or law enforcement.

We’re all super worried about terrorists thousands of miles away when you have people with automatic weapons, explosives and a warped view of reality in your backyard.

I’m totally fine with people being unhappy with the government and turning against it in various ways. Our country gained its independence, as did many others, by fighting revolutionary wars and/or protesting. It is too dangerous, however, to have people believing they are above the law and could cause physical harm or death to innocent people.

Here’s an idea: Maybe the FBI, local authorities and the actual military should get involved to remove these groups from threatening civilization and innocent people. Do your job, Trinidad, Texas, law enforcement.

­— nsobecki@indiana.edu