The pseudo-legal conspiracy theorist common law movement is normalising and justifying violence, intelligence agencies warned in April
Intelligence agencies are concerned that political and media figures may be targeted with violent "citizen's arrests" as part of a new extremist movement.
The danger posed by the so-called common law movement is described in a threat insight from April, written by the Combined Threat Assessment Group and the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service and released to Newsroom under the Official Information Act.
This document describes the common law movement as similar to the more well-known sovereign citizen ideology. Both groups insist they aren't subject to existing laws, but intelligence officials warned the common law movement goes further "in its proactive pursuit of a new form of government based on common law pseudo-legal theories, rather than passive or reactive resistance most often practised by Sovereign Citizens".
Common law also differs from sovereign citizens because it involves the creation of alternate governance structures - common law assemblies - and the anointment of extrajudicial law enforcement in the form of sheriffs.
The briefing was written well before protesters converged on Parliament in August to hold a mock trial, finding the Government guilty of "crimes against humanity". Nonetheless, it anticipated these sorts of public spectacles and pseudo-legal action and said common law rhetoric was likely to increase in prevalence.
"Open source information indicates sheriffs’ responsibilities include convening 'grand juries' to judge ideological opponents, intervene in attempted government interactions with movement members, and other, undefined 'direct action'," the document said.
"We assess 'direct action' highly likely includes 'citizen’s arrests' of those accused of pseudo-legal 'crimes'. Sheriffs have called for the arrest and trial of public figures for various 'crimes against humanity', often connected to Covid-19 mitigation programmes."
While not all adherents to the common law movement were violent extremists, a small number "have applied a violent interpretation of the foundational ideologies, where the desired political change is only achievable by forms of violence, including the overthrow of the Government and execution of those guilty of ‘crimes’ against their pseudo-legal beliefs".
Threatening rhetoric from sheriffs has become more common. Intelligence officials warned this "is contributing to an environment that normalises and justifies violence as a legitimate response to public policy. We judge that this, combined with individuals’ personal grievances, increases the likelihood that individuals will be radicalised and inspired to mobilise to violence, which could happen with little or no intelligence forewarning."
Open source reporting indicates there are as many as a dozen common law assemblies operating in New Zealand and around 50 sheriffs had been appointed by April. Assembly meetings were "almost certainly" taking place in at least seven towns and cities, with some meeting weekly.
The document also canvassed violent incidents and threats from the common law movement, including an alleged assault of the then-Horowhenua District Council chief executive David Wright in April, threats to kill the Prime Minister and an open warning from one sheriff to then-Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield and all politicians to leave New Zealand or be arrested.
The most likely scenario for real world violence would come in the context of one of these "citizen's arrests" or in an attempt to serve pseudo-legal papers. Extremist Brett Power was arrested in the early days of February's Parliament protest when he tried to breach police lines to serve a document to Health Minister Andrew Little.
"We judge resistance to such acts has a realistic possibility of resulting in violence; we further assess a Common Law-motivated arrest to compel participation in a Common Law ‘trial’ would fall within our definition of violent extremism," officials wrote.
"We assess an act of Common Law-motivated violence would almost certainly be directed against a public figure – including politicians, prominent public servants, and media. We judge the attendance of public figures at major events will likely be seen by CL-PMVEs as providing an opportunity to conduct an act of violence.
"Such attacks have a realistic possibility of being an opportunistic reaction to immediate events. We cannot dismiss the possibility that any attack could manifest with little or no intelligence forewarning."
The document ended with a reiteration of the current national terrorism threat level - "MEDIUM; terrorist attack is assessed as feasible and could well occur".
