Antitax Browns Hold Second, Larger Concert


Plainfield -- Scores of cars, vans and RVs lined Ed and Elaine Brown's long, dirt driveway yesterday, some parked haphazardly in between groups of tailgaters, as hundreds of guests showed up for a scheduled 10-hour shindig dubbed Live Free or Die! A Concert in Support of Ed and Elaine Brown. The concert is the second jamboree-style event hosted by the Browns, who have remained in their home since they were convicted this spring on charges stemming from failure to pay federal income taxes.

The Browns maintain there is no law requiring them to pay federal income taxes, and a hand painted sign at the end of their driveway on Center of Town Road reads, “Show me the law.”

Yesterday, while the Browns hosted an overflow crowd of visitors at one end of their driveway yesterday, clusters of their supporters midway up the drive turned away unwanted guests, including media. Local police stood at the other end, near the sign, directing traffic on the narrow rural road.

“We're just here keeping the road open for emergency vehicles,” said Plainfield Police Chief Gordon Gillens, who was joined by one other officer and a member of the Sullivan County Sheriff's Department.

No other law enforcement agencies had a visible presence at the event, but an unidentified helicopter circled above the Browns' home for several hours yesterday. Air traffic controllers at Lebanon Airport and the Boston Air Traffic Control Regional Operations Center said yesterday evening that a flight restriction for an airspace with a six-mile radius over Plainfield was put place yesterday morning but declined to give the reason. The restriction encompassed airspace between the ground and 3,500 feet.

Gillens said he was not coordinating efforts with any federal or state authorities.

Tammy Wainwright, who lives about a mile down from the Browns, said the traffic yesterday seemed much heavier than it was three weeks ago, when the couple hosted their first jamboree, which drew about 50 supporters.

“A lot of traffic started really early this morning,” Wainwright said.

Yesterday's event, which was streamed live over the Internet and advertised in advance on several Web sites, brought small buses from as far away as New Jersey.

By 4 p.m., Gillens said he was still waiting for traffic to taper offer to ease concerns about the Brown's overflowing driveway.

“I bet there's 200 plus people down there, just judging by the vehicles,” he said.

According to a Web site advertising the free event, music was scheduled to start at noon and continue to 10 p.m.

“It a party down there,” said Eric Carlsen, a real estate agent from Boston who drove up to Plainfield this weekend to support the Browns and catch a few politically themed musical acts. Speaking at the end of the Browns' driveway, he described the crowd as a diverse group, a few hundred strong, with “a lot of Ron Paul bumper stickers” to support the Republican congressman, a 2008 presidential hopeful who has made statements in support of the Browns' antitax stance.

Carlsen said he first heard about Ed and Elaine Brown six weeks ago, after a botched reconnaissance operation by federal authorities near the Browns' home made national news. “I came up here a week after,” he said. “I just wanted to see what was going on.”

When he arrived at the Browns' house, Carlsen said, he talked with Ed and Elaine and quickly became an ally. “All the press is making him out to be a kook,” Carlsen said. “He's not a kook. He’s an American citizen who just wanted to be shown the law.”

Carlsen said he had wandered away from the concert yesterday to keep an eye on the police, who he said “are just here to cause trouble.”

Earlier, Gillens had joked that, apart from reminding drivers not to park on the road, he was just there to feed the black flies.