PLAINFIELD – Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies are on heightened alert today because of a benefit concert at the Plainfield home of federal income tax protesters Ed and Elaine Brown.
"There will be a heightened presence this weekend and adequate resources available to (Plainfield Police Chief Gordon Gillens) and his department," U.S. Marshal Steve Monier said in a telephone interview yesterday. "We're working closely with our local and state partners to ensure that public safety is preserved."
The "Live Free or Die Concert" is scheduled to start at noon today and go until 10 p.m.
Ruby Ridge survivor Randy Weaver plans to make a speech, and the music lineup includes rock bands Poker Face and The Law. Organizers bill the show as a benefit for the Browns, who were convicted in January on felony tax evasion charges, but have so far avoided apprehension by federal authorities.Chief Gillens said the town of Plainfield would not provide emergency services to the Brown house today, in the event of an emergency.
"It's basically a lawless gathering," he said, "and people who go there should give thought to that. There's going to be people there with guns, and if things get out of hand, they're on their own."
Meanwhile, Monier said his office is actively investigating "several" supporters of the Browns and could potentially file felony charges against them for "aiding and abetting the Browns in their continuing obstruction of justice."
►Brown decides property taxes are not worth paying
Concertgoers, however, won't automatically face arrest.
"Just being a visitor at the Browns' doesn't necessarily rise to the level of being a criminal offense, but if there is a course of conduct, it could be," Monier said.
Last month, the U.S. Marshal's Office cut off electricity, telephone and Internet service to the Browns' house, and Ed Brown said yesterday he no longer receives his mail. Monier said additional measures designed to make the Browns less comfortable might be forthcoming, though he would not elaborate.
"Other steps may be taken in the near future to convince the Browns they should turn themselves in and to stop threatening the use of violence toward law enforcement," he said.
Ed Brown said he hasn't threatened violence; he instead has warned that if federal agents storm his house, he will defend himself by any means necessary.
"If he wants to play, we'll play," Brown said.
Elaine Brown said no one would need to talk about violence at all if the government would simply produce the law makes the Browns liable to pay federal income tax.
"If there was such a law," she said, "what would be easier than to show it to us, rather than go through all this and millions of dollars of expense?"