Tax evaders' standoff elicits fear and support

PLAINFIELD, N.H. - High in these humid hills, Ed and Elaine Brown have been holed up in their home for six months, refusing to serve a five-year prison sentence for tax evasion. They all but dared law officials to come and get them. This, they say, is a fight they're ready to die for.

"Show me the law!" says Ed Brown, a trim 64-year-old with a silver mustache. The Browns stopped paying income taxes in 1996. They say the Constitution and Supreme Court decisions support their claims that ordinary labor cannot be taxed. But a judge ruled against them in January, convicting the Browns of conspiring to evade paying taxes on $1.9 million in income from Elaine Brown's dentistry practice.

Now, the Browns say they're in a battle for freedom, and it just might end in bloodshed right here, in a towering turreted house with 8-inch-thick concrete walls and an American flag over the double-car garage. They have garnered national support, with blogs devoted to news about the standoff and supporters regularly showing up on the couple's doorstep with groceries.

Government and law officials have cut off power, Internet, house phone, cell phone, television and mail service to the couple's 110-acre compound. But their house is equipped with solar panels, a watchtower, a satellite dish, and a stockpile of food. "We are self-sustained," Ed Brown says.

FBI agents are trying to avoid a deadly shoot-out reminiscent of Waco, Texas, or Ruby Ridge, Idaho. They've tried negotiating, waiting, begging.

"We are proceeding carefully to make sure no one gets hurt," says U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier. "We are aware that there are guns in there." He says the couple broke the law and should turn themselves in peacefully. "They have been tried and convicted and sentenced." But the Browns aren't budging. "You remember that little gentleman in China, Tiananmen Square?" Ed Brown says, peering through his sunglasses. "He was the same as we are. You can scare me, you can kill me, but you can't intimidate me."

"We're fighting for you, your country," adds Elaine Brown, 66. "This isn't just taxes."

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 proclaim "Live Free or Die."

The guests often come bearing gifts: hamburger buns, ginger ale, cell phones with prepaid minutes, gun ammunition. 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, 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 Web site, MaketheStand.com, devoted to the couple's battle.

People back the Browns, he says, because they stand 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.' "

There are 250,000 to 500,000 people in the United States who are tax protesters, says J.J. MacNab, a financial analyst who has written a book on the issue and testified before Congress on behalf of law enforcement. Some, she says, are elderly, uneducated or disenfranchised people who buy into tax-evasion scams. Others are disgruntled - sometimes dangerous - citizens who believe the wording of tax laws does not make them liable to pay. "The tax laws are almost 100 years old, and no one has ever won," she says.

Supporters have hailed the Browns as heroes, akin to Mahatma Gandhi or the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - a fact that has made law enforcement officials cautious about turning them into martyrs.

Residents are anxious, he says, because of the steady stream of out-of-towners - white supremacists, anarchists and other activists - roaming through Plainfield and showing up at community meetings.

MacNab has little faith the Browns will turn themselves in without a fight. "I think there's going to be death and violence," she says.