The Posse Comitatus (Latin, " force of the county") is a loosely organized American

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

populist

social movement A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may ...

which began in the late 1960s. Its members spread a conspiracy-minded, anti-government and

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

message linked to White supremacy aiming to counter what they believe is an attack on their social and political rights as white Christians. Many Posse members practiced survivalism and played a role in the formation of armed citizens' militias in the 1990s. The Posse Comitatus pioneered the use of

false lien A false lien is document that purports to describe a lien, but which has no legal basis, or which is based upon false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements or representations. In the United States, the filing of false liens has been used as a tool ...

s and other types of "

paper terrorism Paper terrorism is a neologism to refer to the use of false liens, frivolous lawsuits, bogus letters of credit, and other legal documents lacking sound factual basis as a method of harassment. These methods are popular among some American anti-g ...

" in order to

harass Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and moral r ...

their opponents by mounting frivolous legal actions against them. As the Posse Comitatus began their decline in popularity at the turn of the 21st century, their tactics and ideology evolved into those of the Christian Patriot movement and the sovereign citizen movement.

Historical background

Due to the strong ties which they forged with the white supremacist Christian Identity movement, members of the Posse Comitatus believe that they are the true Israelites, the people who were chosen by God. They state that the Jews seek to help

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

destroy civilization, and undermine white citizens' rights by means of the Federal Reserve and the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

. Posse charters were first issued in Portland, Oregon in 1969, by Henry Lamont Beach, "a retired dry cleaner and a one-time member of the Silver Shirts, a Nazi-inspired and clerical fascist organization which was established in America after Hitler took power in Germany." One expert has considered

William Potter Gale William Potter Gale (1916-1988) was a political activist who was involved with several white supremacist groups, including Christian Identity and the Posse Comitatus. He was tied to the Aryan Nations, the Church of Jesus Christ–Christian, the So ...

the founder of the movement. Posse members believe that there is no legitimate form of government above that of the county level and no higher law authority than the county

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

. If the sheriff refuses to carry out the will of the county's citizens: "he shall be removed by the Posse to the most populated intersection of streets in the township and at high noon be hung by the neck, the body remaining until sundown as an example to those who would subvert the law."

Christian Identity

Some Posse members embraced the

and white supremacist beliefs of Christian Identity. Some believe that the U.S. federal government is illegitimate and in the hands of a

Zionist Occupation Government The Zionist occupation government, Zionist occupational government or Zionist-occupied government (ZOG), sometimes also referred to as the Jewish occupational government (JOG), is an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming Jews secretly contr ...

(ZOG), the supposed

international Jewish conspiracy Belief in an international Jewish conspiracy or world Jewish conspiracy has been described as "the most widespread and durable conspiracy theory of the twentieth century" and "one of the most widespread and long-running conspiracy theories". Al ...

. In 1985, a member of the Posse Comitatus announced: "Our nation is now completely under the control of the International Invisible government of the World Jewry."

Federal taxes

Members of the Posse Comitatus frequently refuse to pay taxes, obtain driver's licenses, or comply with regulatory authorities. They deny the validity of United States fiat money because it is not backed by gold, which they claim the Constitution requires. They draw up unusual legal documents and attempt to record them, they declare their independence from the United States, or they claim to file " common law" liens against their perceived enemies such as Internal Revenue Service employees or

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

s. They are frequently involved in various

tax protest A tax protester is someone who refuses to pay a tax claiming that the tax laws are unconstitutional or otherwise invalid. Tax protesters are different from tax resisters, who refuse to pay taxes as a protest against a government or its policies ...

s, and they have invoked arguments which have been popularized by

tax protesters A tax protester is someone who refuses to pay a tax claiming that the tax laws are unconstitutional or otherwise invalid. Tax protesters are different from tax resisters, who refuse to pay taxes as a protest against a government or its policies ...

Criminal activities

The Posse Comitatus made national news when, on February 13, 1983, Posse member

Gordon Kahl Gordon Wendell Kahl (January 8, 1920 – June 3, 1983) was an American member of the far right Posse Comitatus movement who was involved in two fatal shootouts with law enforcement officers in the United States in 1983.Tony Spilde''Changing li ...

killed two

federal marshals The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforceme ...

who had come to arrest him in North Dakota and became a fugitive. Another shootout ensued on June 3, 1983, in which Kahl and Lawrence County, Arkansas, Sheriff Gene Matthews were killed. Other members of the group have also been convicted of crimes ranging from tax evasion and

counterfeiting To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

to threatening the lives of IRS agents and judges. The organization also demonstrated to support its members over other issues. On September 2, 1975, Francis Earl Gillings, the founder of a San Joaquin County Posse group, led a group of armed Posse members to prevent United Farm Workers union organizers from attempting to organize non-union tomato pickers. As sheriff's deputies attempted to arrest Gillings on a traffic warrant, one got into a scuffle with Gillings and a shot was fired. On August 15, 2012, five suspects were arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of two sheriff's deputies and wounding two others in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. Terry Smith, 44; Brian Smith, 24; Derrick Smith, 22; Teniecha Bright, 21; and Kyle David Joekel, 28, were identified, with Brian Smith and Joekel identified as the shooters in the incident. The men are rumored to be affiliated with a Posse Comitatus group. On August 17, 2012, two more suspects—Chanel Skains, 37, and Britney Keith, 23—were charged with accessory after the fact.

Legacy

Christian Patriot movement

The direct ideological descendants of the Posse Comitatus movement were found in the "Christian Patriot" branch of the

Patriot movement In the United States, the patriot movement is a term which is used to describe a conglomeration of non-unified right-wing populist, nationalist political movements, most notably far-right armed militias, sovereign citizens, and tax protester ...

. Most Christian Patriot groups adhere to Christian Identity's white supremacist views as well as the Posse Comitatus' view that the American government had deprived citizens of their natural "common law" rights. They have notably espoused Gale's concept of "individual sovereignty", which developed into the broader sovereign citizen movement.

Sovereign citizens

The legal theories of Posse Comitatus have been further developed by the sovereign citizen movement, which claims that a U.S. citizen can become a "sovereign citizen" and thereby be subject only to common law or "constitutional law," not to statutory law (including most taxes). The Uniform Commercial Code plays a part in these legal theories. Some within the movement see African Americans, who only gained legal citizenship after the Civil War and passage of the 14th Amendment, as "14th Amendment citizens" with fewer rights than whites. However, African-American groups have adopted sovereign citizen ideology and developed their own version of the movement's beliefs. The sovereign citizen movement in turn gave rise to the "

redemption movement The redemption movement is a debt-resistance movement and fraud scheme which is primarily active in the United States and Canada. Participants allege that a secret fund is created for every citizen at birth, and that a procedure exists to "redee ...

," which claims that the U.S. government has enslaved its citizens by using them as collateral against foreign debt. Redemption scheme promoters sell instructions explaining how citizens can "free" themselves by filing particular government forms in a particular order using particular wording. The movement "has earned its promoters untold profits, buried courts and other agencies under tons of worthless paper, and led to scores of arrests and convictions." The United States

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

(FBI) classifies some sovereign citizens ("extreme sovereign citizen extremists") as a domestic terrorist movement. In 2010 the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) estimated that approximately 100,000 Americans were "hard-core sovereign believers" with another 200,000 "just starting out by testing sovereign techniques for resisting everything from speeding tickets to drug charges."

Alpine County, California

In the late 1970s, the Posse Comitatus attempted to take over Alpine County, California, by settling there and fielding candidates in local elections. Alpine County is in the Sierra Nevada Mountains east of

Stockton Stockton may refer to: Places Australia * Stockton, New South Wales * Stockton, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region New Zealand *Stockton, New Zealand United Kingdom *Stockton, Cheshire *Stockton, Norfolk *Stockton, Chirbu ...

on the west and east slope of

Ebbetts Pass Ebbetts Pass (el. ), named after John Ebbetts, is a high mountain pass through the Sierra Nevada range in Alpine County, California. Ebbetts is the eastern of two passes in the area traversed by State Route 4. The western pass is the Pacific Grad ...

on State Highway 4. The 2010 population is 1,175 people. The Posse thought winning local elections in Alpine County was their best opportunity to take control of a single county. The group fielded a candidate for sheriff and registered fictitious voters using post office boxes and vacant lots as their addresses. Six people were prosecuted for voter fraud, the false registration thrown out, and the incumbent sheriff was re-elected.

Tigerton, Wisconsin

The posse had a presence in

Tigerton, Wisconsin Tigerton is a village in Shawano County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 741 at the 2010 census. History The Lake Shore Railroad ran through the area from 1879 to 1981. Established in 1896, the village is named after Tiger Creek. ...

, until a crackdown by government prosecutors in the early 1980s left many of the group's leaders imprisoned.

References

External links

* * (A brief overview of the origins and development of the group.) * * {{cite journal , url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2008/0805.carey.html , title=Too Weird for The Wire , first=Kevin , last=Carey , journal= Washington Monthly , issue=Spring 2008 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304014929/http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2008/0805.carey.html , archive-date=March 4, 2016 (Describing the use of Posse Comitatus theories by African-American drug dealers in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...

.) Antisemitism in the United States Christian Identity Organizations established in 1969 Religiously motivated violence in the United States Terrorism in the United States

Posse Comitatus The ''posse comitatus'' (from the Latin for "power of the county/community/guard"), frequently shortened to posse, is in common law a group of people mobilized by the conservator of peace – typically a reeve, sheriff, chief, or another speci ...

Sovereign citizen movement Right-wing militia organizations in the United States 1969 establishments in Oregon