New Hampshire Tax Rebel Siege: Closer to Confrontation?

[Ian David]

New Hampshire Tax Rebel Siege: Closer to Confrontation?

Brian Doherty | June 8, 2007, 2:00pm

Things sound like they are heating up, in a bad way, for New Hampshire tax rebels Ed and Elaine Brown. They were convicted back in January for not paying income tax--laws that they insist are fictional. They've been holed up in their Plainfield, NH, home ever since. Here's the latest from the Concord Monitor:

U.S. Marshals and local police brought armored cars, SWAT teams and an explosives disposal unit. Planes flew overhead, heavily armed police officers guarded roadblocks, and phone lines were cut. But despite the heavy police presence, marshals said they did not come to the Plainfield home of tax protesters Ed and Elaine Brown yesterday to arrest them.

Instead, U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier said police were in the area to do surveillance on Ed Brown and his supporters while an IRS criminal investigation unit seized a building the couple own 10 miles away.

....................

Monier said the marshals and IRS agents were acting on a warrant issued earlier this week, which allowed the treasury department to seize the building that housed Elaine Brown's West Lebanon dental practice. Agents wearing "IRS CID" vests were visible in front of the office complex yesterday, but they would not speak to reporters. Cars and trucks parked in the driveway included license plates from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. An officer with a sniper rifle was stationed on a second-story balcony.

More:
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/120643.html

[Raven]

1. According to the Keene Sentinel yesterday, the Browns are also

refusing to pay their local property taxes because their town refused to provide emergency coverage during some sort of a concert they had on their property last week. Apparently the locals are running out of patience with the Browns since the town is now a circus and Brown's talk is getting crazier and crazier. This does not look like it is going to end well.

[MADem]

3. LAT had a piece on them recently, too. They attract the flakes from all sides of the spectrum.

Since the standoff began, the Browns' home has turned into a commune for anti-government activists. Admirers from across the country make their way to the secluded home on Center of Town Road in Plainfield, population 2,200, in a state where license plates carry the motto "Live Free or Die."

To get to the Browns' house, travelers ascend along a jagged gravel and dirt road, stopping at a silver sign nailed to a tree trunk on the couple's property, which warns: "If not friendly, Go, Go Away!" Unable to telephone the Browns and notify them of their arrival, some visitors proceed slowly down the long driveway or attach small flags to their trucks to show that they've come in peace.

The guests often come bearing gifts: hamburger buns, ginger ale, cellphones with prepaid minutes, gun ammunition. Someone gave the Browns their German shepherd, named Zoey. The visitors pitch tents in the Browns' yard or sleep inside the house. Some bring laptops from which they manage the Browns' blog and MySpace page, both created by volunteers.

Shaun Kranish, 21, of Rockford, Ill., read about the Browns online earlier this year. In March, he drove to New Hampshire and spent a few nights at their home talking about politics and freedom. A gun rights advocate, he started a website, MaketheStand.com, devoted to the couple's battle. He has solicited rechargeable flashlights and candles for the Browns and helped promote concerts supporting them.

People back the Browns, he says, because they are standing against everything that is wrong with government.

"It's about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," Kranish says. "It's about the truth about the 9/11 attacks…. They're saying, 'We're not going to be a part of it; we're not going to fund it.' "
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-taxevaders20jul20,1,5410034,full.story?ctrack=3&cset=true

[MADem]

2. They've been there FOREVER...or so it seems. NT