“… African Americans constitute an elite class within American society with special rights and privilege…placing them beyond federal and state authority”.

Saturday morning around 1:30 am, a state trooper came upon a group of men refueling on the side of the highway in the Boston suburb of Wakefield. The group of 8 to 10 men was sporting military-like garb, and tactical gear, including helmets, body cameras, and long guns.

Calling themselves “Moorish American Arms” the group that has a dedicated Facebook page  Rise of The Moors, claimed to be on their way to Maine from Rhode Island for “training,” according to Col. Christopher Mason said.

As reported by ABC News:

A bizarre incident unfolded Saturday morning in Wakefield, Massachusetts. According to local police: “during a motor vehicle stop, several heavily armed men claiming to be from a group that does not recognize our laws exited their vehicles and fled into the woodline” near Interstate Highway 95.

 

According to The Southern Poverty Law Center,

The Moorish sovereign citizen movement is a  “collection of independent organizations and lone individuals” that “espouse an interpretation of sovereign doctrine that African Americans constitute an elite class within American society with special rights and privileges that convey on them a sovereign immunity placing them beyond federal and state authority.”

It is unclear if the group in the Wakefield standoff follows this doctrine.

Members of the Moorish sovereigns, called Moors, have come into conflict with federal and state authorities over their refusal to obey laws and government regulations. Recently, Moorish sovereign citizens have engaged in violent confrontations with law enforcement.

Initially, two of the men were arrested while the others took off on foot into a wooded area. Police surrounded the woods and had to close off a stretch of I-95 during the busy Independence Day weekend, asking local residents to shelter in place. Police negotiators spent the morning trying to coax them out and to resolve the situation peacefully.

By 10:45 a.m. local time nine men were detained after which another two suspects were found in their vehicles and apprehended.

 

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