Apart from tragedy, what do the following three police siege deaths in the last 12 months have in common?
First, the shooting and killing of Krista Kach with a ‘bean bag’ round by police in Newcastle in September.
Second, the suicide of Daniel Whelan following shots fired at police near Lithgow in July.
Third, the murder of two police and a neighbour by Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train (who were then killed by police) at Wieambilla, Queensland in December 2022.
Krista Kach was clearly mentally unwell at the time of her killing, sparking calls for more involvement of mental health specialists rather than armed police. It is clear from the reports so far, that the police did not want to kill or seriously injure her, and the bean bag round was only meant to incapacitate. The use of this ‘technology’ has been suspended for now.
No doubt, the coroner will have some findings in that regard. However, the live stream showed her spouting sovereign citizen theories and a diatribe about rights all throughout the siege.
Daniel Whelan was well entrenched in the sovereign citizen movement, and had countless social media posts claiming the usual self-separation from the corporate state, Magna Carta, and that the law did not apply to him. When reality caught up, it did not end well.
The inquiry into the tragedy at Wieambilla continues, but I have seen several social media posts by the Trains, where they declare themselves sovereign citizens and their loyalty to similar extreme right-wing proponents in the United States.
And it is in the United States that the highest toll of police deaths, other murders and suicides following siege by sovereign citizens continues. While statistics vary, and there are crossovers with white supremacists and Trumpian fanatics, the numbers of deaths are worryingly in their thousands and increasing.
The Oklahoma bomber and fellow conspirators held sovereign citizen views. There was a significant presence of avowed sovereign citizens in the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. Many now rot in prison.
Sovereign citizens (Sovcits), or more accurately, pseudo-law adherents, commonly adopt a grab-bag of ideas to argue that the law does not apply to them. You can see them regularly in social media videos telling police that the road laws aren’t real, or submitting that judges have no power, or that fines are unenforceable. They swing their attention with agility to the so-called freedom marches in anti-vax land, and more recently to the ‘No’ campaign in the referendum. The Voice is all a United Nations conspiracy in case you didn’t know.
Returning to the three recent Australian sieges, I am not suggesting that all pseudo-law adherents are dangerous or suicidal.
Many are simply exploring the common law and its history, and are attracted to rebellion. However, it is equally clear that many unwell people are attracted to and adopt sovereign citizen views. Or perhaps, and this is only anecdotal, these groups have the potential to reinforce delusion and push adherents further toward extremism.
This is unsurprising in one sense, because the adoption of pseudo-law by adherents is akin to a grand delusion.
One of the smartest commentators in this area is Robert Sudy, who runs an encyclopaedic Australian website pointedly titled ‘Freeman Delusion’.
‘Bizarre delusions’ are defined as those which are impossible or inherently implausible and not accepted or understandable by peers. An example I saw in court regularly is a delusion that all your internal organs have been replaced, without leaving a scar.
The scientific equivalent are flat-Earthers, but at least with them you can actually just walk and swim east until arriving circuitously at the same spot. Sovereign citizen delusions are bizarre, because they are not accepted by legal authorities anywhere. They hold, ultimately, an aspirational belief in what they want the law to be. The delusion is that the law actually reflects their belief.
Interestingly, delusions are not entirely idiosyncratic – they tend to be thematic. Common delusions in psychosis include persecution, control and grandiosity.
The language of sovereign citizens is typically persecutory – they believe they are under attack, primarily from the state, and often assorted religious, racial or ethnic groups. They also are resistant to a heightened level of control of their everyday activities such as driving and paying tax. Sovereign citizens typically believe that they are superior, unique, and of inflated importance. Pseudo-law is the ultimate ‘me’ movement.
It is in this context that there is an obvious attraction to pseudo-law for those already suffering from or vulnerable to delusion or psychotic episodes.
I reckon there is an inherent match to the delusions of the sovereign citizen movement – the road rules don’t apply to me because I have separated myself from excessive state persecution and control. And I can produce my own licence with CAPITAL letters.
And those canny, manipulative pseudo-law adherents profiting and proselytising in that space should take note.
Their own flirtations with delusion may merely result in relatively harmless failed election (or nomination) results, ridicule, conviction in court and bankruptcy. However, for some vulnerable followers and their horrified loved ones the consequences are likely to be prison at best, or death of self or others at worst.
♦ David Heilpern is a former magistrate and is now Dean of Law at SCU.
Yes David the Police need a lot more training in dealing with mental health …. actually the whole community ,
Would benefit from some type of mental health education. We need to be able to recognise help and understand each others trauma .
Perhaps you could go on the police behalf to the next mental health sufferer presenting as violent suicidal and homicidal threat and show them how to deal with the situation.
As much as I generally agree with most of David Heilpern’s opinion pieces, I couldn’t help but feel I was reading a Mandy Nolan hitpiece before discovering the author at the end.
It’s true that the Sovereign Citizen concept generally has greater appeal to those less than willing to be law abiding citizens, the fact remains, one can still be highly respectful, indeed appreciative of, the law, where the law makes sense.
Unfortunately we’ve suffered so many injustices on behalf of the lawmakers, that many feel unfairly discriminated against. Medicinal herbs and herbal derivatives immediately spring to mind, but it’s far deeper than that, including the right to self-medicate or refuse as an individual sees fit, that inspires many to pursue lawful loopholes in order to escape undue persecution.
Obviously the most successful method is to simply fly under the radar, and avoid becoming a public nuisance. Sovereignty us as much about respecting other people’s rights as it is about asserting one’s own.
As the saying goes, however, when tyranny becomes law, resistance becomes duty. There’s nothing humane about the somewhat gleeful claim that people seeking to enjoy freedom, are left “to rot in prison”. Such a statement reeks of Overlordism and the perverted sense that vengeance is justice. I can’t remember if it was a politician or a social spokesperson who once said, to be very wary of those who seek to punish. Perhaps that’s what inspired a former career choice in the past, however, from all accounts, I’ve only ever heard of David being one of the fairest of the magistrates of the law, in his day.
The snide remark about Flat-Earthers, however, was what inspired my response. Ten years ago I would never have dreamt about identifying as such, yet today I’m a recognised spokesperson ardently arguing, with reason, in favour of such an obvious truth. Ironically, I have no disagreement whatsoever with the claim that we can travel east, or west for that matter, and end up where we began. But you’ll never do it by heading South! The entire realm is centred around the North Pole, as every line of latitude “encompasses” it.
I’ve linked to my YouTube channel if anyone wants more information on the topic. It’s my opinion that TRUTH is freedom, even for a taxpayer still suffering the burdens of being born into bondage (not that sort).
My favourite go-to place to prove the Earth is flat, is Julian Rocks. If curvature was the reason it sits above the horizon when viewed from the beach, then where did the curvature go when viewed from the lighthouse?
OMFG! My favourite go-to place to prove the Earth is round is (a) my primary school teacher, (b) the library, (c) the world-wide interwebs, (d) space, (e) tv, (f) any sane person in the district.
FYI, JFK is alive & well & living in sin with Elvis. Bill Gates now controls my arm with his Covid microchip. The weather is controlled by the lizard-beings at the UN so they can take over the world.
As David said: Common delusions
Funny how only option ‘d’ would actually prove anything. I am more than happy to fire you into the firmament. If you hit the dome, then that’s an answer, if you drift endlessly through the wasteland of space, then that’s an answer, but either way, it’s a problem solved.
Hi Ross, and thank you for your thoughtful response. I agree with you that much of the law, self medication especially, is ridiculous. I mean, you can lawfully suicide, but not with some medicines in your hand. But my point, which could perhaps have been more clearly expressed, is that the way to fight stupid laws is not to invent or support an interpretation of the legal system that is purely la la land. The way to fight stupid laws is yes, to remain under the radar, or be an activist for change – hard to do both of course.
The “rot in prison” comment specifically relates to the Capital Hill sentences, where there is no glee from me. The sentences were way too long IMO. 17 years! I reckon they never thought they’d get in there, and things got out of hand. They were not seeking to enjoy freedom – they acted on a deluded belief that the election was stolen. Sigh.
As for the earth being flat, well, I think we will just have to agree to disagree. But I’ll check out the view of Nguthungulli from both places.
Thank you too David, for your very thoughtful response. I must apologise that I quickly whipped it off on my smoko break at work, after the trigger of Flat Earth in your article. Had I given it more thought, I would have realised what you meant by “Capitol Hill” and not have leapt to premature conclusions, for which I unreservedly apologise. You were indeed expressing sympathy, I simply misread.
Last time I jokingly measured “suicide” by saying I hope someone feeds my dog before I get home, I ended up getting arrested and transferred by ambulance to hospital, whereupon I was forced to walk home 20km in the rain after proving I actually have the urge to live. One must be very careful about the wording of things on socisl media lest one have the urge to live severely beaten into them. The medication in my hand at the time was brewed by myself, yet it was forced from my body on the condition I allowed myself to be arrested by a van full of highly toxic medications and people authorised to administer them to me… which I graciously declined, annoyed that my wall along the creek was abruptly delayed by those with better interests in my own, than my own, had for me.
It’s a sad irony that you mention, as much as one would dearly love to speak up for the common good of one’s own community, they make a target of themselves by not avoiding the very radar they wish to eliminate. The catch-22 situation has never evaded my perception of this convention, and I’ve decided that I’m more useful observing, contemplating, and sympathising, than I am throwing myself to the wolves.
I feel you would be a great ally, and myself a suitable student, to your knowledge of the law. However, the traffic around worksites won’t control itself, just as bills don’t pay themselves either.
It’s almost as though, in some instances, we’re seeing a case of “build it and they will come”, which walks hand-in-hand with the concept of problem-reaction-solution, or as they say, The Hegelian Dialect.
I must say I’m super-impressed that you used the politically correct, and societally correct, term for Julian Rocks, “Nguthungulli” – the Father of All Creation. That is what I’m talking about. The correct name for this beautiful big island is actually Aulimoroa, which describes the entire country of some 500 nations of people, before the King’s people described it as Terra Nullius and declared it New South Wales.
It’s an auspicious date and an auspicious time, with an hour before the polls close. I trust my people will vote no, and I strongly suspect the powers that should not be to thwart that. However, as Ghandi would say, truth is not a democracy.
Whatever the future remembers about this day, water will still always lay flat.
Water doesn’t always lay flat as it has surface tension.
Yes, the world is full of ‘unwell’ people. ‘Barking mad’ is another way of putting it.
But we are all a little crazy until we wake up. Forebearance helps.
Then, yes, hiding under the radar is probable the safest thing to do.
It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Hiding your light under a bushel simply means you will be among the last they come for, but by then, it will be too late for you to make a difference, and you will count for nothing. Or in this case, better to be half-cocked, than no cocked.