tax attacks

Newsweek | On Feb. 18, 2010, software engineer Joesph Stack flew a small plane into a building housing the Internal Revenue Service offices in Austin, Texas, because he was upset with the IRS, according to officials. Though Stack's actions were extreme, the United States has seen a quiet but violent anti-taxation movement grow since the middle of the 20th century. Having little in common with the Revolutionary War-era Boston Tea Partiers, these protesters believe taxes are unjustified, with or without representation, and they may have ties to other antigovernment groups, including the militia movement, the Sovereign Citizen movement, and white-supremacist groups. Mark Pitcavage, a historian of extreme-right-wing movements and the director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League, and the Southern Poverty Law Center have researched the history of violent attacks carried out by members of the tax-protest movement. Here they highlight a few of the major events in the movement's history.