A “dirty bomb” drill involving police, soldiers, and firefighters in
Richmond, California included maneuvers in which the California National Guard
used riot control procedures against actors simulating angry citizens. This
practice is not unusual; however, it is disturbing to witness an exercise that
while imitating a terrorist event has a member of the angry mob claiming to be a
sovereign citizen. I could hardly believe what I had just heard. While
pretending to be a hostile citizen, one of the actors declared, “I am a
sovereign citizen and I refuse to recognize you guys”.
Why in the course of a drill for a dirty bomb, would an actor claim
to be a sovereign citizen? President George W. Bush told us terrorists were in
Iraq and “hated us for our freedoms”. Isn’t ISIS the boogeyman in which we need
to surrender our freedoms to protect ourselves from? Sarcasm aside, the San
Francisco Bay Area is not known for it’s sovereign citizen militia population
and hearing this shouted during a mock terrorist scenario was disturbing.
Anybody familiar with Richmond will tell you it is not a rural ‘militia’
environment. Located in the East Bay Area near Oakland, it is a community with
reduced circumstances. No one there is going to be proclaiming to be a sovereign
citizen. Trust me on this.
Are the police and soldiers being conditioned to
engage patriots? The concern I have is the conditioning of young National Guard
and police to associate unruly crowds and terrorist events with the liberty
movement.
This mindset can and has lead to such odious situations as Kent State
and Waco. Those that dismiss and ridicule the “patriot” movement and the idea of
sovereign persons should read Lysander Spooner and Henry David Thoreau.
Those that
deprecate persons concerned with an encroaching police state should do research
into the Army’s resettlement document FM3-39.40 and Executive Order 13603. Especially
Sec.502. Of the executive order:
“The head of each agency otherwise delegated
functions under this order is delegated the authority of the President under
sections 710(b) and (c) of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2160(b), (c), to employ
persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation and to employ
experts, consultants, or organizations. The authority delegated by this section
may not be re delegated.”
Do I have your attention? Detained and forced to
work without compensation is slave labor.
Preparations for potential terrorist events should include tending to the wounded, collection of evidence, and securing the safety of the citizens. Attacking “sovereign” citizens is not what our public servants need to learn in the event of a crisis situation.
There were fire trucks, a Hazardous Material Response truck, a Decontamination Unit, a trailer marked ‘California Homeland Response Force’, and a Taco truck…. Mostly they used the taco truck. My opinion is that this was a serious waste of money.









