Tax evaders taunt police as standoff continues in New Hampshire

[wicket]

:popcorn:

LINK

To avoid serving prison sentences for tax evasion, Ed Brown and his wife, Elaine, have locked themselves off from the world on their own terms.

From behind the 8-inch concrete walls of their 110-acre hilltop compound, the couple taunt police and SWAT teams and play to reporters and government-haters with references to past standoffs that turned deadly. Residents want the Browns' circus to end before their small Connecticut River town becomes the next Ruby Ridge or Waco.

The Browns raised the specter of the first case, the 1992 shootout at an Idaho property called Ruby Ridge, by holding a news conference Monday with Randy Weaver, whose wife and child were killed there along with a deputy U.S. marshal.

Ed Brown warned authorities they wouldn't take him alive: "We either walk out of here free or we die."

The Browns were sentenced in absentia to 63-month prison sentences in April, after being convicted of conspiring to evade taxes on nearly $1.9 million in Elaine Brown's income and of plotting to disguise large financial transactions.

Though they have refused to leave the compound, U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier insists he has no plans to raid it to make them serve their time and will instead seek a peaceful surrender. Expert observers praise the authorities' hands-off approach, but patience is wearing thin for Plainfield's 2,400 residents. Town selectmen recently asked Monier to stop the influx of militiamen and other anti-government groups to the Browns' home and to bring the couple to justice.

"While we understand and support efforts to achieve a quiet resolution to this matter, the longer the Browns remain at large the better the chance, in our view, that our local police force will be involved in an incident with them or their group of supporters," the letter reads. "In short, we believe that it is time that definitive action be taken."

It's a sentiment echoed throughout the town. "The people of Plainfield feel the whole thing has been mismanaged from the get-go," says Stephen Taylor, a Plainfield native who is state agriculture commissioner. "He's got this band of loonies up there right now. There's this constant traffic and helicopters overhead and everything. Goddamn crazies." The town south of bustling Lebanon has a "live-and-let-live" reputation that no one wants linked to the Browns, Taylor said. "Everybody feels a tiny bit of embarrassment. This is what we're going to be known for?" Taylor said. "We don't want to be known for this."

The Browns' home on an isolated dirt road includes a turret that offers a 360-degree view of the property and a driveway that is sometimes barricaded with sport utility vehicles.

Ed Brown, a retired exterminator, and his wife, a dentist, have bragged that the compound is self-sufficient and capable of running entirely on solar, wind and geothermal energies.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. They're bums.

They could sell a few acres of their property and pay off that bill. But they're just trying to create a Waco situation.

[WoodrowFan]

2. can NH put a fence up around their property?

can NH put a fence up around their property? and call it their new prison? :+

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. No kidding. They chosen house arrest for themselves -

which I think is entirely appropriate for the offense. Cut off their phone and cable, jam radio communications, and you've got a jail. When they get tired of it, they'll come out to serve the rest of their time in a normal jail.

[Warpy]

6. That would make the most sense and be the most cost effective

and a partially buried chain link fence with razor wire on top plus a cop stopping by a couple of times a day to make sure they're present and OK would satisfy constitutional and humane requirements. The fence needs to be quite close to the house, though, no more than 50 feet away.

What is it about exterminators and dentists? Too much bug spray for one and too many nips off the nitrous line for the other?

Also, what happened to freezing assets? It doesn't seem that the gummint has this much trouble collecting from us poor folks. It just garnishes our paychecks and takes our property.

Still, allowing them to remain in the prison of their own choosing seems like the best course of action. A palatial prison is still a prison.

[WoodrowFan]

7. they did seize some

I think the govt did seize the building where the wife had her dental practice.

[fasttense]

4. Two thieves who have turned their crime into a cause.

We all have to pay taxes, it is a symptom of living in a society. If they didn't want to pay taxes, they should have moved to an off shore island or Dubai.

[Nikki Stone1]

5. No Waco. Let this married couple stay trapped with each other at home. They'll break at some point.

:evilgrin:

[AspenRose]

8. Someone took that "Live Free or Die" thing WAAAAY too seriously....

eom

[blondeatlast]

9. Let 'em rot--and where can I donate to buy sandwiches and mini-DVDs

for the agents?

They've said they want to be martyrs--fine. Let 'em starve to death.