FARMINGTON, Utah — Days after Farmington police officers fatally shot a man after a traffic stop, little is known about the 25-year-old who was killed.
Farmington Police Chief Eric Johnsen said in a statement Friday that an officer went to open the car door of an uncooperative Chase Allan as another attempted to remove him from inside. It was then that an officer yelled "gun, gun, gun!" before a brief struggle ended with shots being fired.
The Standard-Examiner reported that Johnsen said Allan's car had a placard declaring constitutional sovereignty in place of a license plate.
"Sovereign citizens believe that they have separated themselves from the United States of America and as a result, do not need to follow U.S. law," said Rachel Goldwasser, Senior Research Analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project.
Goldwasser said sovereign citizenship is not a legal form of citizenship, adding that anyone involved in the American sovereign citizenship movement is considered a U.S. citizen, mandated to follow U.S. law and expected to pay taxes.
"They often will not pay taxes; that is pretty standard across the board, many will not pay their car registration, they won't get car insurance, they don't get licenses of any kind," said Goldwasser.
Diane Allan, Chase Allan's mother, recently filed a lawsuit against the department over citations given to her during a traffic stop of her own.
Goldwasser explained that anyone can call themselves a sovereign citizen or American State National without legal consequences, but if they choose to participate in activities popular with sovereign citizens, such as paper terrorism, conspiracy against the U.S. government or violence against law enforcement or others, they hold the standard liability related to those crimes.
By Southern Poverty Law Center's estimates, there are hundreds of thousands of people who have separated from the United States of America and call themselves sovereign citizens. It is a number, Goldwasser says is increasing.
Unfortunately, Goldwasser added, law enforcement members are at the most risk, when dealing with sovereign citizens.
"In 2014, there was a study done by the University of Maryland start program, they researched terrorism and they found that law enforcement considered sovereign citizens their greatest threat."
