Dezi Bird Freeman, 56, is the subject of a major manhunt in Victoria, Australia, after allegedly killing two police officers and injuring a third during a raid on his property. Born Desmond Christopher Filby, Freeman is a self-proclaimed “sovereign citizen” who rejects government authority and has a long history of clashes with police and courts.
Freeman’s radicalization accelerated during Australia’s draconian Covid lockdowns. He refused to wear masks, rejected vaccinations, and railed against government restrictions, calling police “terrorist thugs” and comparing them to Nazis. While Australian authorities saw this defiance as dangerous, many American conservatives would view such resistance as a reasonable rejection of violations of basic freedoms and rights.
His history with the law is quite colorful. Freeman once attempted to arrest a magistrate in court and joined an effort to charge the state premier with treason, a case that was quickly dismissed.
Court records show repeated driving charges, frequent insults toward judges, and attempts to claim legal immunity as a “sovereign citizen.” Freeman is believed to be an experienced bushman, familiar with local wilderness and caves, complicating the search. Police warn he is “heavily armed” and may have stolen the officers’ guns.
Australian authorities stress that the sovereign citizen movement poses a risk of violence, having gained traction during the country’s Covid lockdowns. But the movement is not unique to Australia. It also exists in the United States.
The U.S. sovereign citizen movement is a loosely organized anti-government ideology that first emerged in the 1970s and has since evolved over several decades. Its adherents believe the federal government is illegitimate and often claim they can declare themselves “sovereign,” placing themselves outside the reach of most federal, state, and local laws.
They typically argue that the “real” Constitution ended with the original 13 amendments, that later amendments such as the 14th or 16th are invalid, or that the federal government operates as a corporation rather than a legitimate authority.
The movement’s roots can be traced to earlier tax protest groups, conspiracy theories about banking and monetary systems, and misinterpretations of admiralty law and the Uniform Commercial Code.
In practice, sovereign citizens frequently engage in what experts call “paper terrorism,” filing frivolous lawsuits, liens, and pseudo-legal documents to harass government officials, law enforcement, and private citizens. Other common tactics include refusing to obtain driver’s licenses or vehicle registrations, creating their own identification papers, refusing to pay taxes, and claiming diplomatic immunity.
Some sovereign citizens have rejected U.S. legal tender and attempted to create their own forms of money or payment systems, reflecting their broader rejection of federal authority and their belief that the current monetary system is illegitimate. They have tried to bypass the use of Federal Reserve notes through various means, including promoting the use of gold and silver coins, arguing that only precious metals constitute “real” money under the Constitution.
Others have advocated direct barter systems as a way to exchange goods and services without relying on official currency. A smaller number have gone further by attempting to issue their own private coins, certificates, or digital currencies, though these efforts have always failed to gain widespread acceptance.
Several notable cases have highlighted this trend. The Liberty Dollar case, led by Bernard von NotHaus, involved the creation of silver coins and warehouse receipts that were marketed as an alternative to Federal Reserve notes. Other incidents have centered on “redemption” schemes, where adherents claimed they could access secret government accounts through complex pseudo-legal financial instruments.
Sovereign citizens often face legal consequences for their actions. Creating or circulating alternative currency can violate federal counterfeiting laws, while refusing to recognize official money frequently leads to tax evasion charges. Under the Constitution, the federal government has exclusive authority over legal tender.
Their rejection of official currency is rooted in the belief that the Federal Reserve system is unconstitutional, that Federal Reserve notes are not “real” money, and that the United States should have remained on the gold standard. Others see paper money itself as illegitimate government control. Although these ideas remain central to the movement, efforts to act on them have consistently ended in criminal charges and failed experiments in alternative currency.
The FBI has identified sovereign citizens as a domestic terrorism threat because some adherents have attacked police during traffic stops or court proceedings. However, most rely on bureaucratic tactics, such as clogging up courts with nuisance filings and counterfeit documents, rather than violence. Courts at every level have repeatedly dismissed their arguments as frivolous, noting that the movement’s theories have no basis in constitutional or statutory law.
Recent cases illustrate the pattern. In May 2025, 33-year-old Devonte Arthur was arrested in Richland County, South Carolina, for driving with a counterfeit license plate typical of sovereign citizen claims. That same month in Richmond, police arrested another self-proclaimed sovereign citizen who led officers on a slow-speed pursuit, refused to recognize their authority, and created a standoff at the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza that ended only after chemical agents were deployed.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 2024 saw six violent incidents involving sovereign citizens targeting local and state law enforcement, leaving one officer dead, three hospitalized with gunshot wounds, and four more injured. None of the attackers survived.
Those who did, wound up in jail. Curtis Gregory Smith Jr. of Middletown, Pennsylvania, convicted and sentenced to 56 years for possessing firearms, body armor, and thousands of rounds of “NATO grade” ammunition, and Wayne R. Lund of Oak Park Heights, Minnesota, who was caught with pipe bombs during a traffic stop, claiming they were for his “rocket hobby.”
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