From the February 2001 Idaho Observer:

Oppressive cops, courts give birth to cottage industry

SANDPOINT -- Perpetual pro per litigant Steve Aver, 42, of LaClede, tied Magistrate Barbara Buchanan in knots while he represented himself in court against charges of obstructing a police officer.

Aver was riding in a car that was stopped by Sandpoint police for a “dirty license plate.” Rather than participate in the stop, Aver simply got out of the car, sat on a snowbank and waited for the detainment to end. Officer Vashon ordered Aver back into the car. Aver respectfully and non-violently refused. He was handcuffed and taken to jail for obstruction.

Vashon, who had no probable cause to stop the vehicle, let the driver go without a citation.

Aver's pro per appearance was impressive in its eloquence and knowledge of law. Aver is representative of a growing body of dedicated Americans whose intensive study of the law, criminal and civil procedure, has empowered them to be extremely sophisticated and effective in their methods to defend citizen rights that are found in state and federal statutory law and the state and federal constitutions.

In recent years, cops and courts have been conspiring against citizens to extract revenue from them in an ever increasing variety of ways. One of the most lucrative revenue generation rackets operated by the state is traffic citations. Millions of dollars are extracted from people who are often stopped without probable cause. Rather than fight the citation, even though it may contain multiple imperfections, most people pay the fine. Unless a person knows the law and can effectively exploit the violations of law and due process in court, the judge will ignore the imperfections and the lawlessness of the issuing officer and order the fine be paid by the defendant.

The situation appears to be getting worse. With each passing day mobile revenuers (police) get more brazen in their harassment of drivers because the courts consistently allow challenged citations to stand regardless of whether or not civil rights or state statutes were violated in the process.

Former Stevens County Commissioner J.D. Anderson is also challenging what he refers to as an extortion racket but the state refers to as “moving violations” (The Idaho Observer, January, 2001).

A common rule of thumb in walking the minefield that has grown up between citizen and state is that, “All rights not demanded (by the citizen) are presumed (by the state) to be waived.”

Citizens like Aver and Anderson are using themselves as guinea pigs. They are demanding our rights and are getting closer to perfecting processes people can use to defend them as found in law. Intelligently prosecuting the violation of those rights is becoming a new “cottage industry.”