John Harris

John Harris was a prominent figure in the British Freeman on the land movement and founder of 'The peoples united community' (tpuc.org) website. He was a peddler of pseudolegal woo and was active on the seminar circuit, having given speeches at conferences of the British Constitution Group–most notably his 'It's an illusion' presentation which is often the introduction to the whole Freeman idea for many people. Harris also sold DVDs and even T-shirts of his brand of legal woo. He constantly asserted that we are being misled and deceived by the government and the authorities. He admitted to being anti-intellectual, going so far to state that he was the 'most unacademic man in the world'. When not espousing Freeman concepts, he worked as a carpenter.

While initially a prominent Freeman on the land advocate, Harris began to reject some of its core tenets such as the strawman theory and lawful rebellion. Having originally served an affidavit on the Queen to withdraw his consent to be governed and encouraging others to do the same, Harris soon rejected this course of action, equating it to asking permission to be free.

Aside from the main ideology of the Freeman movement itself, Harris promoted several other ideas and conspiracy theories. He was anti-government and EU. He talked of the Rothschilds and Rockefellers but asserted they are just puppets for the true power wielders. Harris was very anti-church and religion and stated that he did not believe in God or the existence of Jesus and that any historical evidence of Jesus is mere hearsay. In regards to the church, Harris believed that the true power in the UK government lies with the 26 peers-spiritual or bishops that sit in the UK House of Lords and that these in turn take their instructions from the Holy See in Rome (ignoring the fact that these are actually Anglican bishops with no allegiance to the Pope and have been since the Church of England split from Rome way back in the time of Henry VIII). He also believed that the Holy See itself is under the thumb of 'The Order of Saint John of Jerusalem' based at St Michael's Mount, Cornwall UK, who apparently have ancient texts (kept in bulletproof cases, that no one's allowed to read) that prove that Jesus does not exist, and using these are able to control the church. (Yes, the international global conspiracy is based in Cornwall, folks). Despite his anti-church feelings he did assert that the common law system so beloved of FOTL advocates is derived from the Bible, even if the Bible is full of lies and hearsay.

Harris had some rather amusing misunderstandings of etymology (a trait common to the Freeman movement). For instance he claimed that the reason we are taught to spell in school is because words 'cast spells' (presumably magical legal ones) and that if we fail to perform this is why we get exSpelled. The word 'Church' according to him comes from the word coerce, thus revealing the true nature of religion. Absolutely anything beginning with the syllable 'con' must be a con. Especially the words CONtract, CONtrol and CONstitutional. (For non-native English speakers, "con" is actually short for "confidence game" or "confidence trick".)

Like most FOTL peddlers, Harris did not practice what he preached. In his talks he claimed that he returns tax bills, invoices and legal demands to sender with the words NO CONTRACT written on them and actively encouraged other poor schmucks to do the same. However, when it came to himself and his website the opposite seems to apply and those supposedly contractual statutes must be obeyed. So much for Freeman Common law!

when please appreciate no matter how you view the legal system tpuc must adhere to it to exist. I was sent legal papers and was told an injunction would be sought if we did not remove the thread.

Harris, in line with typical Freemen, absolutely hated the government, going so far as to claim that "Democracy is slavery". He instead proposed that the UK needs a benign dictator to abolish all religions, corporations and courts, to seize their assets in the name of the people and to replace the police with the military as 'peacekeepers':

He seriously believed this was going to happen in the next few years anyway. Apparently Harris had never heard of the Soviet Union and the early 20th-century Russian revolutions. A lot of the items in the list sound suspiciously like something written by (naive and illiterate) revolutionary communists, though the Commies did like their monuments, so for point 8 Harris would have to invite the Taliban.

On May 26th, 2015, John Harris announced a final goodbye to the TPUC community, citing himself becoming a monster and almost sending his family relationship into ruin, and wishing his love to all his readers online. He was regretful of his actions and wanted a chance to rebuild himself. About a week later, it was announced on the site that he had committed suicide. .