Main thread for Ed and Elaine Brown vs the evil IRS, Part 23

[Beth221]

that is low and slimey of the feds. 

[Lex]

The irony is that this was the scenario Ed was most worried about. He alienated a lot of supporters as a result but in the end welcomed the Fed guys as supporters into his house.

[LordBaltimore]

According to Fox News: Details on the reported "arrest" will be provided in a news conference at the federal courthouse in Concord NH on October 10th 2007.

The news conference was this morning at 10:00 am.

[Beth221]

Ohh snap. well, any info from it?? 

[FTL_Ian]

that is low and slimey of the feds. 

Yes, but it's not really a surprise.  They are thugs, thieves, and liars.

[frosty]

that is low and slimey of the feds. 

What, as opposed to going in guns-ablazin'?

Ed was trying to set up a bloodbath.  The marshalls found an obvious way around that, and nobody had to get shot.

[Dave Ridley]

<<there was a ruckus at the Grantham, NH town meeting since the couple selected to be Hog Reeves were the only people in town that had had a loose animal in the last year.>>

oh the humanity

[LordBaltimore]

Browns fall for Feds 'trojan horse'
By HOLLY RAMER
Associated Press Writer
3 minutes ago

Concord – U.S. marshals posing as supporters carried out the arrests of convicted tax-evaders Ed and Elaine Brown at their fortress-like home in Plainfield, the head marshal said Friday.

"They invited us in, and we escorted them out," U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier said in the first public disclosure of details of the Thursday night arrest.

A small team of marshals pulled off the ruse, arresting the Browns without incident on the couple's front porch, Monier said.

The arrests ended a months-long standoff that began when the Brown, 65, and his dentist wife, 67, walked out of their federal trial in Concord in January. She returned to the trial, but soon joined her husband at the home, where the couple vowed to resist violently if authorities tried to arrest them.

"We either walk out of here free or we die," Ed Brown said earlier this year.

At a news conference, Monier said officials found booby traps in the woods on the 100-plus-acre property and weapons, ammunition and homemade bombs inside and outside the house. He said more charges are likely.

The Browns were turned over to federal corrections officials to serve prison terms of 63 months. They were convicted in January of scheming to avoid federal income taxes by hiding $1.9 million of income between 1996 and 2003 and were sentenced in April.

The couple claims the federal income tax is not legitimate. Their argument — repeatedly rejected by courts — is that no law authorizes the federal income tax and that the 1913 constitutional amendment permitting it was never properly ratified.

Experts had praised the authorities' hands-off approach before the surprise arrests, but patience had worn thin among some of Plainfield's 2,400 residents. During the summer, town selectmen asked Monier to stop the influx of militiamen and other anti-government groups to the Browns' home and to bring the couple to justice.

Last month, authorities arrested four men accused of helping obstruct justice in the Browns' case. Charges ranged from accessory after the fact to possession and use of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. Authorities also blocked access to a fundraising event on the Browns' property.

Earlier this year, officials cut power and telephone service in an effort to ratchet up pressure on the couple.

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

Heavily armed police surrounded the home in June while they seized commercial property the couple owned in a neighboring town. SWAT teams, military and explosives vehicles marshaled in the tiny town and sparked rumors of a raid.

Monier said then the gathered forces were only for surveillance.

The arrests "will be a relief to everyone in the community," said state Agriculture Commissioner Stephen Taylor, a Plainfield resident. "This has been such a distraction to everybody."

A message left for Elaine Brown's son, David Hatch-Bernier of Worcester, Mass., was not returned Thursday night.

David Grobe, a former dental patient of Elaine Brown's, said he noticed "an unusual amount of traffic all of a sudden" passing by the house, about 30 to 40 cars, about the time of the arrests. "There was no real indication that it was official," he said.

Neither he nor neighbor Robert Carpenter said they heard anything unusual. Carpenter said there were no marked cruisers, but a lot of large SUVs. "We called Plainfield Police and they called back and told us what was going on," he said.

Supporters of the Browns' cause called them leaders who were trying to protect their freedom.

"In many ways this was like a stab in the heart," said Mike Chambers, a talk show host on Republic Broadcasting Network, an Internet-based radio program based in Round Rock, Texas that has defended the Browns in the past.

On another Web site, supporter David Ridley of Manchester said Brown supporters should take part in "peaceable protests" at places such as the U.S. District Court.

[Beth221]

that is low and slimey of the feds. 

What, as opposed to going in guns-ablazin'?

Ed was trying to set up a bloodbath.  The marshalls found an obvious way around that, and nobody had to get shot.

i find it insulting that the feds tricked them, and acted like one of us.  that is all. 

[TruthFire]

Whatever their failings, the Browns have never tortured anyone; they don't occupy foreign lands against the will of the inhabitants, they haven't inflicted a welfare state on anyone and they don't force you to pay their salaries.

The same can't be said for the institution which seized them yesterday and which will lock them into concrete and steel boxes for the rest of their lives...simply because they kept the fruits of their labor.  Whether it's popular or not, I'll be out in front of 1000 Elm today from 3 - 4pm in protest of this arrest. 

Dada, yours is the best response I've seen so far. I just wish many more people had been educated about the IRS fraud as a result of Ed & Elaine's brave stand.

I guess everybody in this forum hated me for revealing Ed's eagerness to resort to guns, but I'm sorry. That scared me. I thought people should know.

I do NOT believe they ever intended for the Constitution Rangers to go on a shooting spree if they were arrested. They only stated they want the EXACT SAME treatment given to those who support the tax mafia. So I guess that means that we have to work harder to ARREST all those who caused Ed & Elaine's arrest.

[mdh]

So I guess that means that we have to work harder to ARREST all those who caused Ed & Elaine's arrest.

I can totally agree to that! 

[Sheep Fuzzy Wool]

A perspective:
Just listened to the chest puffing press conference.
Maybe Elaine and Ed decided they wanted to get arrested that evening.
They could do more about injustice being alive than dead.  Maybe all the people wanting peaceful resolution convinced them. ie: the radio show and many people curious to wish for no one to be hurt on this and other boards...
People who ask questions are not anti-government. Labels, geez..

Aaron Russo's film is everywhere.

An older couple.


"Hot Fuzz" the movie quote..."For the greater good!"

[TruthFire]

So I guess that means that we have to work harder to ARREST all those who caused Ed & Elaine's arrest.

I can totally agree to that! 

I guess that also means we can use lies and trickery, and use only people who agree with us as judges--and pay for it all with money taken illegally from our opponents.

P.S. Their dog, Zoey, is a beautiful female German shepherd, about 1-1/2 years old, and totally devoted to Ed. She'll be despondent without him. Any word yet on what's happened to her?

[CNHT]

And of course since the AP is now poisoning the UL's 'reporting', the first comment is used as a smear against the most honorable man in the country.

Also, comments are being erased that attempt to repudiate smearers.

[TruthFire]

i find it insulting that the feds tricked them, and acted like one of us.  that is all. 

It's MORE than insulting. Isn't it ILLEGAL to NOT immediately identify themselves as feds, according to their rules of engagement?