The Indy Channel
INDIANAPOLIS -- Pendleton police have seized a license plate of a so-called "sovereign citizen," a growing group of Indiana residents who claim to be outside the law.
Police said the plate was going to be placed on a vehicle by a self-proclaimed diplomat in lieu of a state-issued plate.Members of the sovereign citizen movement contend that they no longer have to pay taxes, claiming their homes as embassies and using identification cards that show them as diplomats, 6News' Rafael Sanchez reported.
Pendleton Police Chief Marc Farrer called such proclamations both illegitimate and illegal, and said that anyone driving with such plates will be ticketed and have their vehicle towed. The plate was turned over to the FBI.The Secretary of State's office said about 10 people every month ask to put a seal on a document so that they can claim freedom from taxes.Former federal prosecutor Larry Mackey, who helped to convict Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, said Nichols claimed he was a "sovereign citizen.""He would carry out his beliefs by having a license plate that said UCC Chapter 9, and thereby think that he was exempt from licensing his vehicle. He would send mail with the U.S. flag stamp upside down to demonstrate his protest against tax laws," Mackey said. "There are people who get engaged in this warfare against the federal government … that simply are not well-adjusted."Despite Nichols' association with the movement, not all sovereign citizens support domestic terrorism.
Those who Sanchez talked to
said they draw their beliefs from the Bible and U.S. Constitution.Many claim that the statements within the papers they provide are enforceable because of a state seal placed on the material, but state officials said that in reality, that seal is placed on any number of documents and doesn't make what's on the documents true.Indiana is not the only state seeing an uptick in sovereign citizens. In February, four men were convicted in Missouri for buying and selling fraudulent credentials related to the movement.In March 2009, federal authorities arrested four men in Las Vegas in a similar operation.Some people are paying between $900 and $2,100 to become members of a sovereign citizens group."It is really, at the bottom, silliness. It's people being unfortunately selfish to the point of putting themselves and families at risk," Mackey said. "By declaring yourself a sovereign citizen, it does nothing but frankly get your name on a file with the (Internal Revenue Service)."Mackey currently practices law with the Indianapolis law firm of Barnes and Thornburg LLP.