Retired Pennsylvania State Police Sgt. Robert Bemis recently presented a discussion concerning sovereign citizens at Kutztown University.

Co-sponsored by the Association for Campus events and the Criminal Justice Department, the presentation was aimed at providing information to the criminal justice students but it was also open to the public.

Bemis, a retired Marine, discussed the origins of the sovereign citizens’ movement, ways to recognize their beliefs and suggestions on how to decrease any violence on their part.

He demonstrated a variety of situations the students may experience as they move forward in their criminal justice careers, including dealing with sovereign citizens, who believe the government and its laws and policies are illegitimate.

Bemis courageously battled his way back to the state police after being seriously injured in March 2015 with a broken spine and multiple broken bones when a car pushed his cruiser into him as he was aiding people inside a car that was on fire.