11 September 2023

ARIZONA CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING: Controversial ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Filings Flood Pima County

Sovereign citizens --- a group whose ideology has garnered a reputation for conflict with government officials, law enforcement officers and members of the public—conflicts that, in some cases, have turned violent. 
By filing specially formatted paperwork, adherents of the ideology believe they can remove themselves from what they view as an illegitimate government. They’re increasingly choosing to start the process in Pima County.

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‘Sovereign citizen’ filings flood Pima County, parallel national resurgence of controversial movement

When a 63-page packet arrived at the Pima County Recorder’s Office in January, it was filled with jumbled punctuation marks and rambling pseudo-legal phrasing designed to circumvent the U.S. government.

“I hereby Asseverate, Repudiate and Revoke my Citizenship, if any ever existed, with the Legal fiction known as the ‘UNITED STATES’ Government (Corporation), USA Inc, and any and all subsidiary corporations both known (STATE, COUNTY, CITY,) and unknown under its control,” the sender wrote.

The packet was just one in a recent flood of filings submitted in Arizona by so-called sovereign citizens, a group whose ideology has garnered a reputation for conflict with government officials, law enforcement officers and members of the public—conflicts that, in some cases, have turned violent.

By filing specially formatted paperwork, adherents of the ideology believe they can remove themselves from what they view as an illegitimate government. They’re increasingly choosing to start the process in Pima County.

The Pima County Recorder’s Office went from receiving around 50 such filings in 2020 to more than 1,400 in 2022—a sharp spike that parallels a national resurgence in the sovereign citizen movement, according to a months-long review of public records by AZCIR’s Isaac Stone Simonelli.

In this first installment of a three-part series, AZCIR explores the impact of this growing movement, including how segments of Arizona’s population are creating what experts say is a pathway to radicalization.

READ PART I

NEXT UP:

 

Tuesday — Part II: Radicalization Pipeline

Sedona’s iconic sandstone towers and mythic status as an anchor point of spiritual energy has drawn a global audience of wellness practitioners. But mixed within event schedules filled with drum circles and full moon ceremonies are trainings that weave together anti-government ideologies and improbable conspiracy theories, creating what experts are calling a pathway to radicalization.

 

Wednesday — Part III: 'Paper Terrorism'

Growth in the sovereign citizen movement in Sedona has led to bogus legal filings designed to intimidate and harass public officials, requests by court officials to increase building security and escalated tensions between the movement’s adherents and local police. City officials have publicly downplayed the movement’s growth, but their internal communications reveal an awareness of—and concerns over—sovereign activity.

I look forward to sharing more of this series over the coming days. As you can tell by the recent uptick in publishing, our staff has worked hard this summer to bring you accountability journalism you just can’t find elsewhere in our state. You can expect more deep-dive reporting in the coming weeks as we finalize reporting on one ongoing project and get ready to start publishing a new one.

In the meantime, I hope you’ll support our work with a tax-deductible donation. We don’t sell advertising and all of our content is made available for free—it’s part of our public service mission as a nonprofit newsroom. This means we rely on you to support our work. Help us keep doing it by donating today.

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Thanks, as always, for following and supporting our work.

With gratitude,


Brandon Quester
Executive Director and Editor
Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
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