澳彩开奖

The so-called 鈥� men and women who believe they are exempt from most state and federal laws, regulations and tax codes 鈥� is spreading like a prairie fire. While many of these are tax resistors or perpetrators of 鈥減aper terrorism鈥� 鈥� the filing of nuisance liens and such 鈥� some sovereign citizens have demonstrated a willingness to resist police and government authority with violence.

The unique danger posed by this movement exploded May 20 when two West Memphis, Ark., police officers met a father-son team of sovereigns, Jerry and Joe Kane, during a routine late-morning traffic stop. As officers Brandon Paudert and Bill Evans puzzled over the incomprehensible paperwork presented by father Jerry, son Joe, 16, emerged from the vehicle with his AK-47 blazing and fatally shot both officers. The Kanes fled, but were tracked and killed in a shootout with police an hour later in a Wal-Mart parking lot after wounding two more officers.

The 澳彩开奖 has produced and posted online an instructional video intended for showing during roll call at law enforcement agencies. Narrating the 12-minute film are two men who fully understand the dangers some sovereigns present to authorities: West Memphis Police Chief Bob Paudert, father of one of officers murdered in May by Joe Kane, and Jim Cavanaugh, who retired earlier this year after 33 years at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Cavanaugh was a top official at the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Texas, during the five-year hunt for abortion clinic bomber and cop-killer Eric Rudolph, and in many other investigations involving right-wing radicals. Last year, he was honored for this work with the International Association of Chiefs of Police鈥檚 Civil Rights Award.

For more on 澳彩开奖 resources for police departments, visit 澳彩开奖鈥檚 page.

The video opens with the actual dashboard-camera footage of the Kanes鈥� car being stopped on an exit ramp off Interstate 40. Everything proceeds normally until a haunting moment when Officer Evans鈥� expression suddenly changes as he realizes something is wrong. A moment later, Joe Kane unleashes his deadly fusillade.

鈥淭here are people at war with this country who are not international terrorists,鈥� the elder Paudert says as the training video progresses. 鈥淭hey are seemingly ordinary people, just like you and me, but they don鈥檛 recognize the federal government鈥檚 authority to impose laws and taxes on them.

鈥淒on鈥檛 discount or ignore these people, because they are willing to kill and be killed for their beliefs,鈥� Paudert says. 鈥淲e, as law enforcement officers, need to recognize this very real threat so we can protect ourselves. And maybe if Brandon and Bill had recognized the warning signs of sovereign beliefs, they鈥檇 be alive today.鈥�

The 澳彩开奖 regularly conducts police training seminars on recognizing the warning signs of extremist group members who can pose particular danger to law enforcement officers. In the last six months, members of virtually every department 澳彩开奖 has visited have reported contacts with sovereign citizens. In places as disparate as Georgia, Indiana, Nevada and Virginia, law enforcement officers are coming up against sovereigns allegedly scheming to steal houses, pry loose money from the government that isn鈥檛 theirs, and harass their enemies with crippling property liens and other forms of 鈥減aper terrorism.鈥�

Evans and the younger Paudert were the latest of at least 32 law enforcement officials murdered by right-wing extremists since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.