Sam Dodson is a voluntarist. Preferring the order of the market and voluntary interactions over the violence of the state, Dodson has withdrawn his consent. But he has done more than that for society. In a professionally created documentary titled “The Court of Public Relations,” Dodson questions the authority and legitimacy of the state as he navigates the court system and experiences what he refers to as a “bureaucratic quagmire.” Dodson, who is presently contesting speeding tickets, challenges every step of the government court’s proceedings, including entering pleas, dealing with the prosecutor and court clerk, and filing motions. Notice how whenever he asks questions about the nature of the court and his relation to it, he gets the runaround. (At one point the judge even says “You don’t get to question me, sir.”) Of course, there can be no logical or coherent answer, unless the aggressive monopolists who run the court system come clean and acknowledge that they are judicial despots.
The video is a bit over half an hour long and features several segments consisting of first person point of view courtroom footage followed by Dodson’s pro-liberty opinion about what took place.
As someone who has thankfully never been to court, I personally found this fascinating. I also have a soft spot for people who heroically challenge illegitimate authority, and in particular those who in a matter of minutes can take on the police, the prosecutor, the judge and the army of civil bureaucrats all at once. Oh, and don’t miss the hilarious exchange with the bailiff as he tries to hand Dodson court papers.
Sam Dodson’s legalistic adventures against government courts will continue on his Obscured Truth Network; the videos will also available at FreeKeene.com
9:36 pm on July 17, 2008
