Ms. Little found herself in her yard on Ivy Street on a June afternoon as a police SWAT team negotiated with a man who had broken in, changed her locks and hung a red and green flag in its window. He claimed he was a sovereign citizen of a country that does not exist and for whom United States laws do not apply.
Ms. Little was a victim of a ploy known as paper terrorism, a favorite tactic of an extremist group that is one of the fastest growing, according to government experts and watchdog organizations. Known as the Moorish sovereign citizen movement, and loosely based around a theory that Black people are foreign citizens bound only by arcane legal systems, it encourages followers to violate existent laws in the name of empowerment....
Before the man broke into her house and changed the locks, Little had received strange documents in the mail from "Lenapehoking of the Al Moroccan Empire at New Jersey State Republic." This was not an isolated case. The Moorish sovereign movement is, we're told, actively pursuing their idea of the law "across the country, filing spurious lawsuits and burying county clerk offices in flurries of fake deeds, liens and other documents."
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52 comments:
Sounds like the same people who blocked traffic in an armed standoff in Boston earlier this year, “The Rise of the Moors”.
This is fake news. I have been told repeatedly by my betters that only white supremacy is a threat to the republic.
Mr Sovereign Citizen meet Mr Glock.
They stopped stopped some of these guys Massachusetts on the Interstate a few months back. I assumed they were a post election offshoot of the Soros/Biden rioters. I could be wrong…but not my first rodeo, either…
Didn’t a bunch of guys calling themselves something similar, get busted a few months back by the Massachusetts or NY state police for carrying weapons in their cars? They claimed to be heading to Maine, I think, for “training.”
But "right-wing white extremists" are the biggest threat to the country, haven't you heard? All the smart people in DC say so.
Get back to me when the Aryan sovereign citizen movement does this to some black folks! Although I'm sure it'll be on all the channels, 24/7, for months, so it'll be hard to miss.
Bonus question: how many undercover FBI informants are currently working this Moorish sovereign citizen movement? My guess is zero.
Wow...good thing they're not White supremacists, just simple Black supremacists. Had they been the White variety, they'd have the FBI slamming down the door and storming in to save the nation. Photo op for Kamala and everyone to follow.
But this? I'm surprised the Times reported on it. But good for them for doing it. This kind of con will not end well. There is so much bullshit pumped into the heads of Black Americans these days. Much of it just destructive for themselves and those around them. And what is the end game of it all? What is the goal? What do the Lenapehoking of the Al Moroccan Empire at New Jersey State Republic actually want?
I suspect the answer is more about what the 'leader' of this group wants for himself, and has nothing at all to do with the betterment of his or anyone else's people. This is not the first story about these people messing around with society, walking that fine line between legal words and paperwork and actual...here it comes...Insurrection. It will not end well for anybody.
Back in the 80$, some white nut jobs did stuff like that in NE.
One of the Moors was going to call himself Othello, but his friends convinced him that would make it really hard to get dates.
Awful for that woman and their other victims, but a lot more interesting to read about than the usual property crime.
I bet they are funded by Soros and friends.
And Black/Hispanic people are always disproportionately affected by crime.
That is why rich white libs are the people pushing to defund the police.
Democrats want poor people to be their serfs.
The experience of 700 years in Spain reveals the best way to deal with Moops.
"They stopped stopped some of these guys Massachusetts on the Interstate a few months back."
Click the "Rise of the Moors" tag to get to posts about that.
Well, the Moops are Muslim, right?
How they treat women -- even Black Women -- is to be expected.
They should hook up with lawless Antifa(D).
daskol said...
Awful for that woman and their other victims, but a lot more interesting to read about than the usual property crime.
Crime is just another way to destroy individual property rights.
There is a reason why the aristocracy allows poor people to live in crime infested slums while they live crime free.
"a theory that Black people are foreign citizens bound only by arcane legal systems"
Katha Pollitt, call your office! This deserves a follow-up to your lament about the absurd BS people believe, right?
Can of Cheese for Hunter @ 8:36: “…lawless Antifa..”
Redundant expression. Five demerits.
Temujin @ 7:18: “… What do the Lenapehoking of the Al Moroccan Empire at New Jersey State Republic actually want?…”
I think immediately of “Field Marshal Cinque,” head of the Symbionese Liberation Army that captured Patty Hearst in the early 70’s. It didn’t end well for anybody, but it certainly kept the media wetting themselves for a good long time.
There’s also Jonestown.
There were people doing something similar in a Florida county a few years ago. They would find a nice house which was temporarily vacant - people on vacation, snow birds, maybe just gone for a weekend - break in, change the locks and claim they were now tenants under some bizarre, witless legal/political theory that I don't remember.
The police - that is, the higher brass - were reluctant to arrest them because they were afraid of a lawsuit for intervening in a "civil matter".
After being consulted, I authorized felony arrests of these pinheads.
You have to wonder whether this is an unintended effect of all the homilies delivered by academic leftists that claim we are occupying land owned by indigenous peoples.
It's not "paper" terrorism when someone breaks into your house.
Notice too the implication in the victim's statement that the only problem here is that the victim happened to be Black.
Sovereign citizens, of any stripe, are a pack of jokers. They reject the law, yet they cite court opinions to prove their position. And they can't even get that right. Usually, the citation is inapposite. Sometimes, they cite the court's summary of the losing party's argument.
The Moorish sovcits love the Treaty of Peace & Friendship. One clause provides that ships at sea can pass w/o molestation when a signal is given. Today's interpretation: police have no right to stop a Moor in his "vessel", his automobile. They have even weirder legal theories.
These are conservative black nationalists. A militia that isn't particularly well regulated. The type of people that get Ronald Reagan to sign gun control regulations.
That was a weak attempt, Howard- I know you can do better.
Like Tom above, I find the framing very illuminating- "paper terrorism" to describe an actual invasion and occupying of someone else's home. And had this homeowner been white, would the NYTimes have even covered it?
You can't imagine my response to these tools if someone did this to a property that I worked hard for, saved for, and did everything right for. Well, maybe you can.
Moor, please.
We had some of this--same group--going on here about five years ago: a nice house that had gone unsold for a long time, suddenly occupied by a "Moorish Sovereign Citizen" and her kids.
They were removed after about a week, IIRC, but I don't know what became of the case.
A few years before, some (white, father and son) "Sovereign Citizens" got killed in a West Memphis parking lot after a confrontation with the cops.
These are conservative black nationalists.
Trump supporters?
Boogaloo Boys in blackface?
There has got to be an explanation that condemns non-leftists.
I have an idea. Why not have congress declare war on the nation that claims it is not part of the US. Then we can defeat them and annex all their possessions. Doing that once might deter other groups from declaring sovereign status.
Howard: "These are conservative black nationalists."
Its never too early for the lefty liars to begin their historical rewrites/"whitewashing of reality"/"airbrushing of history" to fit today's narrative needs.
I laughed out loud when I saw the article at the NYT. The NYT style of photography has become so clichéd: fake-candid shot of a brooding protagonist, pensively looking away from the camera, immaculately lit and touched up. You've seen it before, at least a thousand times. The NYT would benefit greatly if they could recruit Prof. Althouse as a photo editor.
It is interesting that the NYT didn't paint the sovereign Moors as a militia or as Second Amendment nutjobs at length. They almost certainly would have done so if the group were white. At least Howard did it here in the comments.
FWIW, there have been various branches of this movement over the years, and it would be no more unusual to see them recruiting on the streets in the NYC/NJ area than to see Lyndon LaRouche followers doing the same. Indeed, you'd often see the Moors and the LaRouche folks at the same sorts of events, especially in DC. The argument is at least as strong for the Moorish groups being cults of personality as anything else, though the Black nationalism element is a critical component.
There are a few Wikipedia articles and even a post at the SPLC about the sovereign Moorish groups.
May be the local police, DA, and Courts knows the "Moors" and have dealt with the BS before, so they felt safe on taking action immediately, and it's not because she is Black. I am surprised with all the Covid Restrictions going on the people were vacated so fast, seems like it was treated as a simple trespassing.
And why did the NY Times cover this person?
Link without paywall:
https://thelawnewsnetwork.com/she-bought-her-dream-home-then-sovereign-moors-changed-the-locks/
Anti-colonialist movements abroad and minority group nationalists at home confound the usual right versus left preconceptions. I doubt the Moors feel very favorably towards Trump or the Republicans. They would probably feel closer to left-wing race agitators, whatever their own end vision for the world is.
It's similar with radical Islamists. They defy the usual categories. They aren't one with the Western left, but hardly fit in to Western conservatism or rightism. The idea that the "true left" is above and opposed to authoritarian minority group or anti-colonial movements assumes that the "true left" is stronger than it is and that leftists haven't often embraced such movements.
Lenapehoking was an Indian name for parts of New Jersey and neighboring states. It looks like the Moors are confused about this, but their ideology probably explains it all for them, as if the US having no authority over them means that native American labels are the relevant ones.
The key phrase for her to remember is "I felt my life to be in immediate danger". It is your house, break in through a window....and if an intruder appears in your house, the law is pretty clear even in New Jersey. Doesn't matter if the intruder has the keys to the front door or not if you didn't invite him in.
Wilbur said...
The police - that is, the higher brass - were reluctant to arrest them because they were afraid of a lawsuit for intervening in a "civil matter".
After being consulted, I authorized felony arrests of these pinheads.
Good move. because if they did this to my house, I'd give the cops one day to solve it. Then I'd go in and kill them all.
My defense at the trial would be:
They said they're not bound by the laws of the US. That means they're not protected by them, either.
I bet it'd get a hung jury every time the prosecution tried to carry the case
Prof, this fact pattern would make a great law school exam question!
Change it up a bit to trigger different issues:
- you come back from vacay and your key doesnt work. While the locksmith is on your porch about to replace the lock, the door opens and a man in a fez starts yelling at you. Does the Castle Doctrine allow you to use lethal force on an intruder to your residence when you are outside?
- similar fact pattern, but they’re away at the masjid or at work (as if!) when you come home, so the locksmith gets you in with puzzlement but without incident. As you walk around the house wondering about the impressive fez collection you now seem to own, another locksmith shows up, hired by men in fezzes who are screaming about how this is their home. Can you shoot them while they are still on the porch?
I’m sure thee are other issue spotters embedded here.
JSM
Treat these people for what they are; home invaders.
The sovereign citizen movement the Moors adapted was spawned from the John Birch Society. Sovereign citizens are antithetical to commie pinko libtards.
They said they're not bound by the laws of the US. That means they're not protected by them, either.
Hmmm. Are the slave markets still working in Libya? You know, if we sold these “Moors” to Libyan slave merchants we could recover part of the cost of fixing any damage they may have done to the dwelling, not to mention the costs of deploying the SWAT team and courtroom legal costs. A little publicity, and the “movement” would be over pretty quickly.
Just sayin’
Maybe those ads by O’Reilly, Giuliani and Gingrich for “Home Title Lock” aren’t so crazy?
These are conservative black nationalists.
These days, that means they are either Antifa or FBI.
Someone who starts out promising liberation, uplift and opportunity instead delivers only oppression. Has a familiar ring to it. . . .
Howard: "The sovereign citizen movement the Moors adapted was spawned from the John Birch Society."
The lefty/LLR-Lefty transparent lies come in ever greater volume with ever greater frequency now.
john mosby said...
- similar fact pattern, but they’re away at the masjid or at work (as if!) when you come home, so the locksmith gets you in with puzzlement but without incident. As you walk around the house wondering about the impressive fez collection you now seem to own, another locksmith shows up, hired by men in fezzes who are screaming about how this is their home. Can you shoot them while they are still on the porch?
So, you're going to shoot their "locksmith"?
Because a reputable locksmith requires proof that you live there before he will work on the door locks for you.
So any "locksmith" working with the "Moors" is an accessory to their crimes
Howard: "The sovereign citizen movement the Moors adapted was spawned from the John Birch Society."
"Rules for Radicals" was spawned by the Left.
That doesn't mean anyone who uses it is a leftist.
Are you really this much of a moron, Howard?
Institute for Justice's Short Circuit roundup, always worth reading, notes a 5th Circuit decision bouncing a land claim against a mining & timber company, seems to be part of the trend if you search the decision they call themselves "Moorish Americans". https://reason.com/volokh/2021/09/25/short-circuit-a-roundup-of-recent-federal-court-decisions-125/
I can't be the only one to be reminded of Ignatius J. Reilly's "Crusade for Moorish Dignity", am I?
I'm sure they did the lock-changing themselves. T'ain't hard to do.
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