“I’m not a person, I’m ‘we the people’.”

[randomness]

This woman is evidently confused about the nature of the society in which she is currently living.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/woman-who-allegedly-didnt-wear-a-mask-at-shunfu-mart-charged-with-offences

Paramjeet Kaur, 40, who made headlines on Sunday after videos emerged of her claiming to be a “sovereign” when confronted at the market, allegedly failed to wear a mask when she was outside her home, as required by law, on more than one occasion."

In videos circulating online, the Singaporean, who was born here, can be seen claiming to be a “sovereign” while in a heated argument with passers-by.

“It means I have nothing to do with the police, it means I have no contract with the police. They have no say over me,” she says.

A man, who is off-screen, responds: “This doesn’t even make any sense. If you’re a person in Singapore, you have to follow the rules of Singapore.” But the woman replies: “That’s the thing – I’m not a person, I’m ‘we the people’.”

"A report by Chinese evening paper Lianhe Wanbao on Tuesday quotes a woman who identified herself as Kaur’s mother saying that Kaur is a physiotherapist who had lived in Australia for 20 years before returning to Singapore last year."

TIL that the "sovereign citizen" movement is a thing in Australia as well as the States.

Singapore, not so much.

Comments

[bikergeek]

Germany has the "Reichsbürgerbewegung", or "Reich citizens' movement", a bunch of people who don't recognize the post-WWII government of Germany as legitimate, nor its post-WWII borders. They want the monarchy restored and they want Germany restored to its 1937 borders, among other things. They're not neo-Nazis, although there is a bit of overlap with other far-right movements in Germany, and many Reichsbürger have expressed anti-Semitic views. Many are also trying to gain access to firearms, which are of course heavily restricted in Germany and typically limited to those used for hunting or organized competitive target shooting.

[randomness]

Yeah.

I suppose they get somewhat farther in Germany than someone asserting "sovereign citizenship" in Singapore.

[bikergeek]

From what I understand typically the courts in Germany are about as amused with the Reichsbürger dolts as the US courts are with "sovereign citizens" who go in ranting about "fringe on the flag" and "admiralty courts" and other such nonsense.

One of the sadder aspects of the US sovereign citizen movement is that there are a bunch of scammers leveraging the concepts from it in order to sell phony "debt relief" and "tax relief" scams to innocent victims. Theory being that asserting "Sovereign Citizen" status will make it so that the courts cannot enforce a judgment against you for payment of a debt or payment of taxes. And for the "low low price of $99.95" or whatever, Joe Scammer will tell you how to file all the paperwork. Of course it's all bogus and when the victims are finally hauled into court in order to get them to pay what they owe, they're sadder but wiser.

[randomness]

Yup. The scammers have found good pickins.

I was actually a bit surprised that the "Sovereign Citizen" nonsense had spread to Australia.

[bikergeek]

Me too, especially since it's based on some peculiarities in US law centered around the Fourteenth Amendment, which (according to them) created the notion of Federal as opposed to state citizenship. The legal "reasoning", such as it is, is really down the rabbit hole.