Enlightened Arrests

The methods used—and not used—by the FBI in removing tax protesters Ed and Elaine Brown from their home in Plainfield, N.H. two weeks ago may be held up as shining examples of intelligent police work.

The couple, it may remembered, refused to pay taxes on more than $1 million of income, on the cockamamie theory that no law required them to pay taxes like the rest of us. They retired to their remote, million-dollar estate, which they had already fortified with a certain number of explosives, and challenged the feds to come get them. Their intransigence apparently translated into a stirring call to arms among certain anti-government types, who flocked to their cause, apparently including a Randolph man who was eventually arrested for helping them. These supporters filtered in and out of the compound, supplying the couple with their needs (possibly including more weapons) and fortified their egos.

It was a tinderbox situation. Some law enforcement agencies might have seen it as the perfect opportunity for a SWAT team to blast its way in and take the Browns, or their remains, into custody.

Not the FBI, however. Not this time.

The agency demonstrated patience and creativity. Its strategists studied the situation long enough to understand it and then simply sent a couple of agents to the door posing as friends of the Browns.

"They invited us in, and we escorted them out," a spokesman said, succinctly.

Nicely done.