Tax Protestors Gone Wild

Ed and Elaine Brown, perhaps the two most notorious tax protestors on the market right now, were finally sentenced yesterday: they each got 63 months -- that's more than five years -- for tax evasion. As is typical for tax protestors, they claim that there's just no law requiring them to pay income taxes. For some inexplicable reason, the judge didn't buy it.

The curious thing about this case, though, is that the Browns are at their home, and there appears to be no plan to arrest them and make them serve their sentence! Apparently their home is "fortress-like" and the U.S. Marshals don't want another Waco-like seige and possibly disastrous ending. So while the Marshal assures us that "Law enforcement is not going away and neither are the warrants," the Marshals are also "not going to engage in that kind of game with them."

So for now, the Browns will be free to relax at home and continue to issue statements such as "The world belongs to the creator. It doesn't belong to man. It doesn't belong to the United States government. It doesn't belong to me. It doesn't belong to you" and "I could care less what [the judge] does. I can't talk to a fiction. You're a fiction, too."

I suppose the government's desire to avoid violence is commendable, but really, they need to work out some plan for arresting these criminals. "They've acted as if they're above the law," the local assistant U.S. Attorney said, and, if the government can't figure out how to arrest them, then they'll have been right.