Washington State ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Plans Showdown Over His Property - but Only in Court, He Says
The thought that you can benefit from all the goods of modern society while shouldering none of the burden is at the root of many Sovereign Citizen irrational legal claims. So protected by our criminal laws, legal torts, traveling our roads, and using our public services where it benefits them, they live their lives up until the point where it’s their turn to pay their fair share. Then they go ballistic.
This evil notion is woven into the West state psyche, it’s an evil blend of extreme libertarian and twisted bible mythos that the crazy and dysfunctional use to justify their freeloading.
Self-described “sovereign citizen” David Darby wants everyone to know that he has no intention of getting involved in any armed standoffs with any law enforcement officers from Clark County, Wash., where he lives. He says he just wants his day in court - even though, whenever he has had one of those, he has lost.
Most recently, the 69-year-old Darby - a longtime antigovernment “Patriot” movement activist, dating back to the 1990s, and political gadfly - was informed by a Superior Court judge that his 4.7-acre property in rural Amboy would be put up for auction, following foreclosure proceedings brought against him by Clark County for failure to pay his taxes.
“It’s all constitutional,” he insists. “Everything I’ve done is constitutional. If it’s not constitutional, then all they have to do is prove it. And I will stop this. I will pay the taxes. But because they have not done this, I would not pay the taxes. And I cannot get this into federal court until I am hurt. So once they actually sell my property, I’ve been hurt. Then I will file in federal court.”
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