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How to resolve AdBlock issue? Fugitive Freeman: a warning on dealing with ‘sovereign’ citizens
By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>
THE SHOOTING of cop-killer Dezi Freeman, following the biggest manhunt in Australian history, is significant. For business people, it may also present warnings about dealing with so-called ‘sovereign citizens’.
According to Vince Hurley, a lecturer in criminology at Macquarie University, what set Freeman apart from other criminals was that he was a sovereign citizen.
Freeman is one among a movement of individuals that originated in the US – called sovereign citizens – who believe they are not bound by government laws, taxes, or authority. They often use ‘pseudo-legal’ theories to justify why they reject state and federal regulations.
Dr Hurley, a former police detective with experience in investigating murders and kidnappings – who knows about hostage negotiation – said Freeman was different from the rest because he subscribed to a particular ideology.
“What sets Freeman apart from any other hostage taker or person that police want to arrest is that he’s wedded to a political ideology,” Dr Hurley told Talking Business.
“So being a sovereign citizen, he hated the state, whether it be the government, the justice system, the police, anything to do with government he has hated.
“So as a negotiator, you can’t give him anything when you negotiate with him. With someone who is wedded to a political ideology, as a sovereign citizen, you can’t give him anything. You can’t give him the state, you can’t change the criminal justice system, you can’t change the government.
“So he was never going to surrender.” 
What arrest meant for Freeman
Dr Hurley said, for Freeman, being arrested by police would have been a total humiliation because it meant the police would have ‘won’.
According to Dr Hurley, sovereign citizens are even different from neo-Nazis who actually operate with a hierarchy and structure.
“The unique thing about sovereign citizens is, because they don’t believe in authority, or because they don’t believe in order, they don’t have a structure,” Dr Hurley said.
“They’re literally random individuals who subscribe to a philosophy or a lifestyle.
“They don’t come together for conferences, they don’t come together to protest. If there is a protest, they might go to it but they don’t come collectively.
“So trying to police or keep an eye on them is incredibly difficult for [Australian security services] ASIO, or ASIS or Federal Police in any state or territory. How do you police an individual like him?”
Evasion fitted with sovereign culture
Dr Hurley said the extraordinary part of the episode was that Freeman was shot 200km from Porepunkah where he had shot and killed two police officers. That was connected to his ideology of being a sovereign citizen.
“He wanted to prove to the police, or give the state the middle finger, that he had been driven psychologically to survive as long as he could without them,” he said.
Mr Hurley doubted that Freeman had used a car to get that far, as that would have been spotted by police drones which can pick up heat in any vehicle.
“A car is a really big object and it’s going to gain attention to him that he probably didn’t want,” he said.
“I think over seven months, to travel 200km, is not that unrealistic because people run ultra-marathons, people live off the grid and go out for bush walks for weeks and weeks at a time and cover that distance.”
Mr Hurley said it was not unusual for sovereign citizens to spend time off the grid.
“Because they hate the state, the criminal justice system and the police, and the courts and the government itself, they want to have as little to do with the state as possible,” he said. 
Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness
https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-10-interview-with-vince-hurley-from-macquar
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