It is almost always dangerous to represent oneself in court. Maybe traffic court is okay, but if one is Pauline Bauer, pizza place owner, who rioted on Jan 6th and reportedly told Capitol police “bring Nancy Pelosi out here now… we want to hang that f*cking b*tch,” this is a bad idea.
Pauline Bauer is representing herself and is using the Sovereign Citizen defense, which is about as effective as using the “Chewbaca defense from South Park.” If one doesn’t understand the reference, don’t worry. The point is that the Sovereign Citizen defense is bad.
Some of us have seen it in court and in short, it goes: “I am a sovereign citizen, I do not recognize and am not subject to your fake government, your fake laws, your fake courts, with fake judges. I recognize divine sovereignty.” The response was simply, “And it is your American right to believe all of it. But you will now experience a fake jail, which is what happens when you break those official fake laws.”
Now, according to Rawstory [1]:
“Prosecutors allege that Bauer tried organizing buses to transport people to D.C. for a rally that preceded the riot, and that while in the Capitol rotunda she told police that she wanted to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,” with Weill adding, “But in what experts describe as an inadvisable legal strategy, Bauer has demanded to represent herself in court, appeared to threaten a court clerk with prison time, and declared herself a ‘self-governed individual’ with special legal privileges.”
This is known as the Sovereign Citizen defense, she articulated it as:
“I am here by special divine appearance, a living soul. I do not stand under the law. Under Genesis 1, God gave man dominion over the law.”
We suspect that the sentence about God giving dominion over… is misinterpreted by Bauer, not God.
To fill out her story:
During the riot, she allegedly stormed the Capitol rotunda and told a police officer that the crowd would further storm the building if Pelosi and other officials were not released to the mob. ‘You bring them out or we’re coming in,’ she allegedly said, according to a transcript of a police body camera included in the court record.”
In sentencing, judges always look for some remorse and the likelihood of repeat offenses. This woman checks of both with respect the worst responses and will be punished for it.
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak