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.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
