‘Unconventional diatribe’: Sovereign citizen Glen Short charged after boasting about traffic stop
A sovereign citizen made headlines this week, claiming he drove away from an RBT scot-free, but a top cop has now hit back at his claims.
Police say they’ve caught up with a “self-governed man” who boasted online about driving away from an RBT scot-free earlier this week.
The end result – seven charges and a date with the Magistrate at Wollongong Local Court in September.
Glen Short made headlines earlier this week after new.com.au reported on his bizarre interaction with a New South Wales Police officer, where he recorded himself engaging in a pseudo-law argument as to why he didn’t need to be breath-tested or produce a licence.
He later took to social media, boasting about the interaction.
In the video, Mr Short posted to his social media, the Helensburgh man can be seen arguing with a Wollongong Highway Patrol officer.
It starts with him parked at the side of a country road and the officer asking for his driver’s licence.
Mr Short responds by stating that the roads and maritime services are a separate corporation from the NSW Police force, and that the officer did not have his consent to look up the details of his commercial contract.
He then claims he is not driving but rather “travelling” and not conducting commerce.
The officer repeatedly asks him for his licence.
Short then claims that the state of New South Wales is registered to Washington DC on the Security Exchange Commission, meaning he could not be arrested.
At one stage, the officer muttered: “Yeah, nah … I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The officer then seems increasingly frustrated with Short’s arguments and gestures that he will be arrested if he does not comply.
Short responds by yelling that the officer does not have his “consent” and is “trespassing against my property”.
He then accuses the officer of treason and claims that he has beaten the chief magistrate in Sydney.
The video ends before Mr Short allegedly drives away.
Still, he was later charged with seven offences, including driving unlicensed, using an unregistered registrable class A motor vehicle on the road, refusing or failing to submit to a breath test, and resisting police in the execution of their duty.
He is due to appear in court on September 25.
Mr Short’s arguments were typical of those made by so-called sovereign citizens, who believe they are not subject to government authority.
They often rely on pseudo-legal arguments repeatedly debunked or rejected by courts.
Psuedolaw proponents often cite that an Australian authority is registered to Washington DC on the Security Exchange Commission. However, the documents often cited by sovereign citizens relate to SEC filings for securities and bond transactions.
Mr Short’s video is now accompanied by a “false information” warning, flagged by Facebook’s independent fact-checkers.
The incident prompted 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Wednesday to quiz NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Brett McFadden on why Mr Short was able to drive away.
“These individuals hold what’s best described as unconventional and legally unsupported beliefs,” Commissioner McFadden told Fordham, labelling the argument an “unconventional diatribe”.
“What that video doesn’t show is that the driver left the scene at the side of the road, but our officer was actually quite diligent at identifying the driver.
“Following the incident, court attendance notices were prepared by the officer involved, and (on Tuesday) we engaged further with the (alleged) offender, and we had one of our sergeants attend the area where he’s known to frequent.”
He said a forceful arrest is often the case when the accused makes it difficult to identify, but the officer involved in this incident had identified Short by other means and “elected not to engage in a pursuit.”
“Within 24 hours, the (alleged) offender was re-engaged and served due notices to go to court in September,” he clarified.
Fordham later in the program threw to fellow outspoken 2GB host Ray Hadley, who had some choice words about the way police handled the interaction.
“The simple fact of the matter is they can do a very quick compliance check on the rego – they would have then known it was unregistered – he shouldn’t have been allowed to drive off,” He argued.
“You can’t let a bloke drive off simply because he doesn’t want a breath test and then say “well, we’ve got him in court in September – he’s facing seven charges.”
Hadley suggested officers are “terrified” at the repercussions of the forceful arrests Sovereign citizens often provoke.
“The message will go out to sovereign citizens now “oh I can drive off”,” he lamented.
According to Mr Short’s social media channels, he owns and operates Helensburgh business Rockmonster Excavations and is a “Student Patreon” of Mark-Kishon Christopher, the self-proclaimed chief global postal court plenipotentiary judge.
Mark-Kishon Christopher’s website offers followers, for a fee, advice on how to “eliminate your domestic and commercial mortgages, and debts” by “showing engineered fraud on your documents, agreements and contracts.”
One course titled “How To Pay Your Taxes Part 1 & 2” sells for AU$6707.
“On this course, I teach my students how to correctly pay your taxes,” the description reads.
“I explain how the Inland revenue system operates and how to write in Miller’s language. I also explain how you can sue your Governments, Courts and Corporations for correct name and language performance.”