A man killed Saturday in a shootout with Polk County sheriff’s deputies was identified as a member of the sovereign citizen movement by Sheriff Grady Judd.
Kyran Caples, 26, refused to leave Hunt Fountain Park in Lakeland Saturday morning after the park had closed. Investigators said that when Lt. Chad Anderson and Deputy Craig Smith tried to remove the man from his vehicle, Caples, who also goes by Kmac El Bey, pulled a gun and opened fire on the deputies.
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Deputies returned fire and killed the man.
Judd said Caples identified as a sovereign citizen, specifically a “Moorish sovereign citizen.”
Below is an explanation of what the sovereign citizen movement believes, along with the “Moorish” offshoot of the ideology.
What is a sovereign citizen?
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Sovereign Citizen Movement dates back to the 1970s.
The ADL identifies sovereign citizens as being part of an anti-government movement with varying ideologies; however, at its core, the movement believes that the U.S. government is not legitimate because of the Federal Reserve Act of 1933.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, sovereign citizens believe that the removal of the gold standard for U.S. currency allowed the federal government to use citizens as collateral to back the dollar.
Those identifying as sovereign citizens claim that by taking part in several convoluted legal filings, they can free themselves from the jurisdiction of the federal and local governments, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
There is no central group in the Sovereign Citizen Movement, but rather multiple groups espousing variations of the ideology exist across the country.
What is a Moorish sovereign citizen?
The Moorish offshoot of the movement is spun out of a fringe religious group, the Moorish Science Temple, according to the ADL.
The Southern Poverty Law Center points out that “some Moorish sovereigns are known to affiliate with the MSTA, but certainly not all MSTA chapters are linked to sovereign citizens.”
Moorish sovereign citizens hold the same beliefs as other sovereign citizens, broadly, but they are specific to Black communities.
The Moorish sovereign citizens, according to the ADL, tend to focus on “the 1786 treaty between the infant United States and Morocco, which Moorish sovereigns claim gave Blacks (as “Moors”) special immunities and privileges.”
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