Sheriffs Invade ANZAC Service

Recently there's been a flurry of activity from a group in New Zealand who believe that they are Sovereign Citizens - that they have disconnected themselves legally from the laws of our country. Sovereign Citizens believe that the government is an illegitimate corporation with which they have no contract - that they can therefore exempt themselves from our country's laws, and pick and choose which laws they want to obey, which they describe as common law.

And to an extent, we all live under a social contract - of living in a society - and having to live by the laws that the government sets. Laws need to be just, and there are processes for changing those laws, but you can't just declare yourself as exempt from them. If you commit a serious crime, the police are going to show up and arrest you - claiming to be a sovereign citizen isn't going to help you out.

We saw some of this playing out at the occupation at parliament earlier this year. These people believed that by saying some special phrases such as “I do not consent”, when arrested, that police had to let them go, because they'd not entered into a contract with the government “corporation”.

The most recent nonsense from this movement is that they have been making themselves “sheriffs”. It started just over a month ago when, from what I can tell from the news, a couple of sovereign citizens conned or even coerced Justices of the Peace to sign an official-looking document declaring them head New Zealand sheriffs.

The purpose of these “sheriffs”, it seems, is to be able to arrest individuals who they think have breached “common law” and should be arrested and punished.

Now that these people consider themselves to be in power, they think that they have the ability to deputise other sheriffs. There's a short clip of somebody being deputised here.

I can't help but giggle at the mispronunciation of some of the words in that reading, and it boggles my mind (again!) that people think they can become an official with legal powers just by reading a declaration.

Last Monday, several Sheriffs turned up at an ANZAC service in Kapiti, near Wellington. They asked if they could speak during the event, along with the others who were speaking. The organisers decided that there would be less disruption if they were allowed a few minutes at the podium. Unsurprisingly, their talk rapidly descended into conspiracy nonsense and they were asked to stop - which thankfully they did.

If you have the misfortune to find yourself entangled with one of these “sheriffs”, it's important to realise that they have no actual power. However, I would consider them potentially dangerous - these people seem to have some serious delusions - and would back away from any altercation if you can. And if they're causing a scene, phone the police - I'm sure the police would be happy to come and let these sheriffs know that they're not welcome, and have no jurisdiction.