I assume too they like to play the victim, and being punished in court simply proves their obsession that the powers that be are an oppressive and illegal regime bent on persecuting innocent citizens.
It brings to mind the Monty Python bit about the anarcho-syndycalist commune: “Come see the violence inherent in the system… Help, help! I’m being repressed!”
The part of the SC act I don’t understand is their idea that being a non-citizen (American National, Moorish National, or whatever) exempts them from traffic laws, especially vehicle registration, speed limits, etc. No other non-citizens, with the possible exception of diplomats, are exempt from having to drive a registered vehicle, maintain insurance, obey speed limits, etc., within a jurisdiction. Even if one grants that they are non-citizens, they wouldn’t have the “rights” they claim.
The whole “traveling, not driving” issue is a completely separate topic/argument.
Not related at all. That’s about real looking license plates with fake numbers used to evade tolls. All tolls are no collected by EZpass or by plate number.
SC plates are not common enough to warrant a sign. Toll evasion is very common.
At $27 to get into Lower Manhattan, one can see why toll evasion is common.
I believe a lot of the fake plates are temp tags (whether real or fake) from another state, commonly NJ. One could have recently bought the car, whether new or used so they could be legit temp tags. I have seen news stories that they do occasional enforcement blitzes on habitual cheaters; where the plate reader captures your plate going into the tunnel & then they pull you over coming out of the tunnel because they were alerted to you being there by the plate reader.
At least there’s a side benefit of flagging the sovcit types. I suspect they’re not as common in New York as in the southern and western states though. I wonder how common completely fake license plates are in NYC versus defaced real plates. I know there’s a market for counterfeit Florida plates, then there’s the scourge of temp tags barely visible in highly-tinted rear windows. Still, there’s no shortage of leaves glued over numbers, deliberately rusted/scraped off plates, bent plates, or paint/stickers changing things like C’s to O’s, O’s to Q’s, P’s to B’s, etc.
There was a NYTimes article (last year?) about license plate vigilantes. Cyclists in New York armed with sharpies… if they see a parked car with a plate where the number paint is partly scraped off so the plate does not read correctly, they fill in the missing part with a sharpie. If the plate is bent over to cover one or more characters, they bent them straight. One study found a greater number of the defaced plates belonged to policemen. Also mentioned in the article was the number of “temporary” license plates. Many could be traced to a few car dealers in New Jersey who seemed to hand them out like candy, and the actual vehicle owner coould not be traced.
Considering that the last few time I drove in New York (city or upstate) it was almost impossible to not have an EZpass, I assume that toll evasion is becoming common. Other than license plate readers and the sting operation mentioned, I’m not sure how you would catch people without a valid plate in an automated world.
(I saw a discussion about photoradar in Vancouver, and someone asking how fast you needed to slow down to avoid a ticket when passing the radar. Simple answer was “Dude, it’s instantaneous.” The other thing mentioned was, unless you were an occasional traveller, after the same vehicle with the same plate problem shows up multiple times on the camera, sooner or later the police would likely stake out your usual route at your usual time and catch you. Then, hit you with speeding tickets for all the instances, plus a ticket for the plate and likely impound the car.)
Scofflaws need to be stopped but it’s not up to vigilantes to do it. It’s no better than those that place fliers under windshield wipers. Keep your goddamn hands off my car!!
I hate to say it, but in answer to the OP, I suspect that in some cases anyway, cops don’t don’t pull over vehicles with SC plates because they (the cops) are sympathetic to broader SC philosophies.
[Moderating]
Speculation of philosophical sympathies are beyond the bounds of Factual Questions.
They weren’t damaging the cars - just repairing unreadable license plates. But oddly enough, the article did say that threats and violence were not unheard of. Ideally, they changed the plate to be readable and the perp would be unaware that he was triggering toll booths and speed cameras with a readable license plate for a while. 
Lawrence O’Donnell was interviewing the actor Nick Offerman yesterday for a new movie Sovereign about the sovereign citizen movement. He thought it was very good.
I’ve been dealing with them for over 30 years.
After renewal I never received the sticker for my Suburban, probably stolen out of the mailbox. I emailed the MVD and never got a reply so I just drove the truck with expired tags for two years and never got pulled over until the next renewal where the sticker arrived okay.
It was not my daily driver so that probably helped a lot. It was on the road once or twice a month.
I just saw a link to a website that makes plate ‘hiders’; a James Bondesque shield that comes up & hides your plate for when you’re going thru a toll or parking on a city street. The website stated they’re officially designed for
Part of me really wants to get one but part of me knows that if there happens to be a cop behind me one time when I might use it I’m gonna be in for a world of hurt. No plausible deniability there!
Sorry, probably violates SD T&C so find the site yo’self
Irrelevant. Except in an emergency intentionally tampering with someone else’s vehicle without their consent is illegal. No matter where you are there will be a law or code that covers it.
If you see a vehicle with violations report it to proper authority.
If you saw a car with a flat tire or broken tail light you wouldn’t think you had the right to repair those, would you? Those vigilante types need to keep their hands off other peoples vehicles. If they want to help there are legal avenues for them to follow.
I think the word “tags” in this instance is slang for license plates. You seem to be referring to the registration sticker some states require on the plate. If the license plate is expired it means the car is unregistered and is not allowed on the road. If it has the wrong sticker on it the car would still be properly registered. Not having the proper sticker would probably be a violation in your state but the car wouldn’t be removed from the road.
My state required registration stickers for about 4 years. About half the people couldn’t figure out how to put them on properly. They stopped requiring it. While it was in effect there were two separate statutes covering proper registration and the placement of the stickers.
Here in Chicago you’re probably fine as long as you don’t park your car on the street. In the last 20 years, I have gotten three expired tags tickets, and all have been from street parking, and all within 3-8 weeks of the sticker expiration. (I did manage to get out of the fine for two of them.)
I did not expect that. I figured in Arizona if I was pulled over the cop could run the plate and it would come up as registration was up to date and I’d get a lecture or something. Nevada I was not so sure.
3-8 weeks is ridiculous. We usually don’t start citing until 3 months over.
But, contrary to some beliefs, you can, and will be cited for an expired tag even if you’re not driving. If it’s parked on a public street it has to be current. I will either mail the cite to the address the registration comes back to or put the cite under the windshield wiper (yes, that is permissible). People bitch like mad about it. “But I wasn’t driving!” So park it on private property and I can’t do that.
I once got nailed at the airport the first of the month. My mistake for getting distracted with that travel and not getting the car re-registered but I have to think someone at APD was making an easy quota.
I think the official grace period is 15 days? Or maybe that’s for the city sticker. At any rate, I was once away for a week or two in July and my sticker was in the mail (it expired end of June.) I wasn’t home to put it on, but I got a ticket cited on around July 17. I contested by mail, included my receipt, and at least managed to get off the fine, even though technically they still could have nailed me, as the law says it must be displayed and on the car by the expiration date, not just purchased by then.
That was the quickest one. The other two were both definitely before two months, too. Or maybe I’m just unlucky.
ETA: I see a Reddit thread saying there’s no grace for Illinois license stickers, so in that case, I must have been dinged in the first week of July. (And I see other posters there claiming to be dinged the day after expiration.)