Victoria Police are continuing their search for 56-year-old Dezi Freeman, who is accused of fatally shooting two officers in the state’s north-east earlier this week.
Freeman is believed to be a “sovereign citizen,” an anti-government conspiracy movement whose followers reject the authority of the state.
Police say disputes over COVID-19 measures have contributed to the movement’s growth in recent years.
The shooter
On Tuesday morning, 10 police officers attended a property in Porepunkah in the state’s Alpine region to execute a search warrant.
Two were killed at the scene, and a third was injured.
Police say their main suspect is Freeman, who is “heavily armed” and “still at large.”
Two individuals have since been arrested and released as the investigation continues.
Movement
The suspected shooter has been identified as a self-proclaimed “sovereign citizen”.
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Sovereign citizens, or “sovcits”, are part of a movement of individuals who reject government authority and don’t participate in traditional societal structures.
The ideology, which emerged in the U.S. in the mid-20th Century, has since spread internationally and is believed to have reached Australia in the late 1990s.
Australia
According to a 2023 declassified briefing from the Australian Federal Police, sovcits have “existed in Australia for decades.”
The briefing said members have historically attempted to exercise their ideology by declaring “micro-nations” with their own flags, not paying taxes, and driving without licences.
The perpetrators of the 2022 Wieambilla terrorist attack had some connections to sovcit ideologies.
They are described as typically living “in isolation or in small local groups.” However, in recent years, authorities have noted an increase in recruitment.
The movement in Australia has overlapped with anti-vaccine networks, conspiracy theorists, and far-right extremists.
Social media and messaging apps have been the main tools for sharing material and coordinating activities.
In recent years, however, many individuals have shifted toward encrypted communication platforms after being kicked off mainstream social media.
