Follow Up To Waco 2.0

It was back in June that it looked like the armed stand off between New Hampshire tax protesters Ed and Eileen Brown and the feds was possibly escalating into another Waco or Ruby Ridge, with SWAT teams, armored vehicles and enthusiastic patriots rushing to the area for a replay of the Branch Davidian and Ruby Ridge fiascos. I noticed the curious reversal of roles this time around, with the feds actually showing some restraint and not earnestly burning down Ed and Eileen’s “compound” and the patriot supporters raging hysterical almost like they were trying to provoke a response.

After a brief flurry of media attention the international and national news agencies packed up their laptops and cameras once it became apparent that the feds had learned “the lessons of Waco” and the retired exterminator and practicing dentist weren’t going to bulldozed or burned to the ground, leaving the local newspapers and of course the blogs to cover the hot dog and hamburger BBQs and arrests of true-believing supporters.

Let’s take a quick look at what they’ve been up to.

Blast From The Past

On June 19th Ruby Ridge survivor and recently released ex-con Randy Weaver appeared and spoke at a press conference at the Brown compound in order to give his support. Weaver and Brown hit the usual notes. “Income taxes are voluntary.” “Show us the law.” etc. Weaver’s appearance made the linage between the Brown’s conflict with the feds and the patriot conflicts of the past more distinct, as well as leant a certain credibility to the Brown’s cause (at least for the militia/patriot right). Also made distinct were the racialist tendencies of the Patriot movement – Weaver is an avowed white separatist – something that current patriot movement tries to play down in order to mainstream their image, avoiding the overt racism of past far-right movements, instead focusing on issues like xenophobic illegal immigration and the North American Union while continuously intoning “but my best friends are Mexican!”

Hot Dogs, Hamburgers and White (?) Helicopters

With the media spotlight fading due to the lack of a shootout or massacre the Patriot movement mobilized their info and freedom warriors to organize a
Freedom Concert at the compound. Organized by talk show host, annoying folk singer and no-planes-hit-the-Pentagon 9/11 conspiracy theory peddler Dave VonKleist, the concert featured such treats as grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and the “protest rock” stylings of bands like Pokerface. About fifty people showed up to enjoy the Italian sandwiches, metal riffs and to show support for the Browns, the only visible sign of government intimidation a white helicopter, revealing that for all of Homeland Security’s nefariousness, someone there must have a sense of humor.

Sometimes You Have To Break A Few Eggs

Things tend to slow down in the dog days of summer and armed standoffs seem not to be immune from the phenomenon. Not much really went down at the compound in July except for 22 year old Brown supporter Jason Gerhard
crashing their SUV and totaling off the car of a 17 year old girl while “getting some eggs” for Ed and Eileen. As we will see in a bit, the 22 year old security guard was more than just the Brown’s grocery and bag boy …

Self-Cannibal Holocaust

Most extremist and fringe political organizations have a tendency to self-implode, and by news reports, in late August the Brown’s entourage was doing the same. According to
this article, the Browns fell out with their supporters over such issues as pacifism, paying taxes and the usual ego and personality clashes. Former supporter Jose Gonzales described “Ed Brown as a racist with political ambitions” as well as “an arrogant, ambitious, self-serving man that is using everyone around him (including Elaine) for his own personal political gain.” While extremist political groups are notoriously unstable due to the clashing egos, odd worldviews, societal pressure and the eccentric nature of those attracted to such groups, in all honesty the FBI has a long history of infiltrating and destroying from within any group it perceives to be a challenger to the existing power structure (see COINTELPRO). At the moment there is little proof that’s what’s happening here, although FOIA requests may tell a different tale in the future.

Why The Revolution Should Not Be Blogged

I guess it was inevitable. Supporting and vowing to violently defend convicted felons in a confrontation with the feds on MySpace, blogs and to the media is bound to cause some sort of reaction, especially when you’re allegedly supporting them with food, water and weapons. Just this month Brown supporters Bob Wolffe, Reno Gonzalez, Danny Riley and Jason Gerhard were “arrested on various federal charges pertaining to help provided to the Browns since their convictions, and at least one of them is looking at a possible 125 years in prison.” Curiously, it looks like some of the information used in the indictments came from SUV crashing security guard Jason Gerhard who also informed the feds where the guns were being stored in the Brown house. Whether ratting out the Browns and their supporters was from the realization and terror of how much shit he was in, or something more sinister, has yet to be revealed.

Patriot Reality TV

Despite the enthusiasm of the patriot movement, Ron Paul supporters and 9/11 and Federal Reserve conspiracy theorists, something about this whole situation stinks. While the beliefs and motivations of the Branch Davidians and the Weaver family came from misguided places, their convictions seemed genuine. With the Browns I can’t help but read it as an upper-middle class couple that got caught evading taxes who are just using the fig leaf of kook anti-tax arguments in order to weasel their way out of prison. Despite the apocalyptic scenarios of their supporters, there is something about this revolution that rings hollow, like a bad late night TV version of a real revolution, with hamburgers served up while a rock band plays in the background and fed copters hover overhead. Oh yeah. Like it is now.

Of course, this isn’t the end of the story, but as the feds cut off the Brown’s supply lines some kind of resolution will probably come sooner than later. And whether it’s going to end with a bang or a shrug is anyone’s guess. We’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE: The Browns were arrested peacefully by US Marshals posing as supporters. Link to news story.