NCJ Number
191375
Journal
Intelligence Report Issue: 102 Dated: Summer 2001 Pages: 44-48
Date Published
2001
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Like Patriot groups nationwide, the organizers of Washington State's "Freedom County" are not having much of an impact.
Abstract
Thom Satterlee, the architect of Freedom County and one of its "commissioners," has declared, "The people of Freedom have replaced Snohomish County and they are now starting to rise up." Fnu Lnu, the proclaimed sheriff of Freedom County, has the real name of Robert Victor Bender, a 57-year-old former FBI agent from the Seattle area who was hired last October (2000) by organizers to provide law enforcement for the would-be county. So far, his duties seem to have consisted largely of trying to chase off Snohomish County code-enforcement officials. Despite organizers claims that the county has existed since 1995, very few people in the area take them seriously. The organizers of Freedom County envisioned the creation of a new county composed almost solely of rural precincts in which resentment ran high against a county government dominated by urban and suburban precincts around the city of Everett. The Freedom County organizers presented the Washington legislature with their petitions in 1995, with over 12,000 signatures on them. Those petitions became the foundation of the Patriots' claims that they had obtained a mandate to secede from Snohomish County and form a new entity. The petitions were ignored by State legislators, and subsequent efforts by Satterlee and his cohorts to get the courts to support them have failed. Supporters apparently now number less than one hundred. Freedom County is representative of much of the so-called "Patriot" movement today, as it is declining in energy and enrollment, disdained and disliked by mainstream neighbors, and impotent in achieving any of its goals; however, the remaining committed followers may be more radical and potentially more dangerous. Sheriff Rick Bart, the bona fide sheriff of Snohomish County, says he has received threats to blow up the courthouse, and he is taking these threats seriously. He is also closely monitoring the work of county code-enforcement officials in case a violent confrontation erupts.