New details: Killer of Edmonton Hate Crimes Investigator Was Anti-Semitic ‘Sovereign Citizen’
Norman Walter Raddatz, the 42-year-old unemployed mechanic who fatally shot a Canadian hate crimes investigator this week, was not only an antigovernment “sovereign citizen,” but also a regular poster of anti-Semitic messages on the Internet.
For the past 18 months, the cop killer was involved in a “lengthy campaign of anti-Semitic hatred and violence” against a Jewish family in Edmonton, Alberta, bombarding them with escalating threats of violence, various media outlets reported today.
Raddatz also was homophobic, using Facebook accounts to call gay people “sodomites” alongside crude jokes about the film “Brokeback Mountain.”
He also spewed antigovernment venom and hated police, posting at one point: “They will have to drag me to court by force. I will not voluntarily enter a corrupt Admiralty court.”
Sovereign citizens — sometimes called “Freemen on the Land” in Canada — believe government and the court system have no control over them and they, therefore, don’t have to abide by licensing, zoning and other laws. Most sovereigns believe that they are only subject to “common law,” and that most courts today have replaced that with the law of the sea as part of a nefarious plot.
At one point, Raddatz was cited for illegally storing firewood, apparently fueling his antigovernment hatred as he went through a divorce and the financial collapse of his business, triggering foreclosure on his home and seizure of a motor home.
“This constant harassment by Edmonton bylaw ‘Officers,’” Raddatz said on a Facebook where he used the fictitious name “Dino Stomper.” "These people really only serve corporations by enforcing unlawful statute and generating revenue via fines. This is another ploy to unlawfully levy taxation by any means.”
All the while, he engaged in anti-Semitic Facebook postings with friends, using the term “f-bomb Jews” and blaming Jews “for everything from poor city snow removal to bad television programs.”
The police officer investigating Raddatz, Edmonton Police Services Constable Daniel Woodall, was fatally shot multiple times Monday evening as he attempted to arrest the suspect at his foreclosed residence in Alberta’s largest city.
Raddatz, who had been squatting in the home, refusing to leave even though electrical power had been turned off weeks before, and refused to answer his door when the officers knocked, authorities said.
He opened fire with a large caliber hunting rifle when Woodall and Sgt. Jason Harley, both wearing bulletproof vests, attempted to use a battering ram to enter the residence. Woodall was struck multiple times and died at the scene. Harley was shot in the back, but is expected to recover.
Police didn’t return fire as Raddatz fired his rifle more than 50 times through doors and walls, Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht told reporters. Within moments the home in a middle-class neighborhood burst into flames, burning to the ground — apparently Raddatz’ last act of defiance against what he considered illegal banking institutions and the government.
A body believed to be that of Raddatz, was recovered in the charred basement ruins.
“Raddatz was an alcoholic battling depression, a man who had lost his marriage, his business, his motor home, and finally, his house,” the Edmonton Journal reported in today’s editions. “He was squatting in his foreclosed bungalow, where the power had been cut off for a month. He was a man defeated, with nothing to lose [and] he was also filled with rage and hate.”
While police said they haven’t found any direct link between Raddatz and organized antigovernment groups, his Facebook rants espouse views of sovereign citizens. The posts “clearly espouse views that reflect the Freemen movement and the broader sovereign citizen ideology in which people believe they are exempt from the law unless they consent to be governed by it,” the National Post reported.
“These are Admiralty courts and do not whatsoever protect a natural man’s common law rights,” Raddatz posted on May 14, 2014. “We are still a British colony (USA is too). Authorities swear an oath to the queen. The Crown is not the queen or monarchy, nor is it the British government!! The ‘Crown’ is a corporate enterprise that exercises power from the square mile CITY OF LONDON CORPORATION!!”
In other posts, Raddatz talked about using “two names” — his birth name and a second capitalized version for use on certain documents, the National Post piece said. “The idea of avoiding taxes, fines, and criminal charges through the capitalization or punctuation of one’s name is a pervasive belief in the sovereign citizen and Freemen-on-the-Land ideologies,” he wrote.
“Yep, we are used as collateral by way of the all capital legal FICTION name,” Raddatz wrote in August 2014. “We have been brainwashed and lied to, into thinking that a natural human being is liable for fees, fines, penalties, and taxes accumulated by a corporate legal fiction.”
