Posse Comitatus

Once upon last summer, somewhere amidst the immense prairies of North Dakota, half a dozen cows went astray and ended up within the 3,000-acre area belonging to the Brossart's family. The men of the house refused to give them back. The sheriff of the county, Kelly Janke, nevertheless, went on to get them. The events evolved to the point of having the sons of Mr. Brossart chasing the sheriff off and expelling him while wielding fire arms. According to The Los Angeles Times (LAT), Janke called in for reinforcements and help came from the state troopers, the regional SWAT (special weapons and tactics) and the Grand Forks Air Force base. The latter organism deployed a remote-controlled flying, spy drone. The members of Brossart family were finally arrested.

This episode I found in The Independent on Sunday (IoS) today. The story is simply told by Rupert Cornwell. I have looked into LAT in order to find out more to write about here. What I found is a far more juicy tale and a problem of tremendous dimensions and complexity. I guess Cornwell did just not look into LAT because, otherwise, he would have written his column in a different way. He would have, for sure, talk about The Sovereign Citizens, movement he says nothing about. It is the gist of the whole story.

The kids of the Brossart family belong themselves to the Sovereign Citizens, a movement largely unknown by the public in the States, but with a well-proven history of criminality for almost 40 years.

The excellent documentary of Byron Pitts for the CBS 60 seconds is revealing and stunning, completely unmissable! A great piece of work to understand the profile of these individuals. They considered themselves above the law: don't pay taxes, don't have driving licenses or social security numbers. The speech of these sovereign citizens festers hate to all kinds towards authority and boasts on the use of violence against politicians, congressmen or even the President as a deterrent to achieve their self-proclaimed and whole-heartedly independence. The average sovereign citizen pours his mind on radical and brutal words when speaking. He lacks the charisma and the refine education of a Hitler, and is not aware of the skillful propaganda of a Stalin (is raw and blunt, radical, instead), but it seems to me their arguments are as much compelling, brilliant and catchy as theirs.

The ranks of the Sovereign Citizens keep growing due to the economical strains and the mortgage crisis, it is said; their numbers are calculated to be 300,000 in the States. The timing belt of Pitts story is the paradigmatic case of Jerry Kane and his teenager son. Kane is divorced and has lost his job as a truck driver at the time he joins the movement and travels around with his son peddling financially-troubled audiences a way to reduce their debt by scam. In May 2010, they both are captured after killing two police officers in duty who made their car stopped, on the grounds of some traffic offence. It was the boy, Joe -I think that's his name- who shot the men!: he put 25 bullets in their bodies overall.

The story that Rupert Cornwell has left unfinished -the Brossart family case- is one of the tricks destiny sometimes plays: a group of sovereign citizens, unwilling to abide by the law, receives an unintended response (i.e. a non ad-hoc response) in the form of a tremendous Governmental authority! The action seems to be legitimate - and a common practice in certain places, I read- but it has brought out a capital historical issue for the US Department of Defense and, probably, an old-fashion one which can take a lift-up job.

Back to the years right after the Civil War "the Army had been used extensively throughout the South to maintain civil order, to enforce the policies of the Reconstruction era, and to ensure that any lingering sentiments of rebellion were crushed. However, in reaching those goals, the Army necessarily become involved in traditional police role", tells major Craig Trebilcock, from the US Army Reserve, in a quite interesting and well-written US Homeland Security document.

The Posse Comitatus Act (the "power of the county") was passed after normality was more or less achieved in order to avoid the Army be involved any more in the works of police and local law enforcement. This Act has been traditionally "view as a major barrier to the use of U.S.military forces in planning for homeland defense" (Craig Trebilock). The surprise of Rupert Cornwell for the use of a $10m-unmanned Predator Drone to chase three "civilians", being these planes normally used in missions in Afghanistan, Colombia or against African pirates, is just the umpteenth example of such barrier, misunderstanding and source of conflict.

Oh, what a rich, long and challenging story, Rupert... .

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