Libertarian tax protester Irwin Schiff dies in prison
From a release by The Libertarian Party
Libertarian Irwin Schiff, 87, who sought the LP nomination for president in
1996, passed away on October 16 while serving time in federal prison for
refusing to pay the income tax.
"While many Libertarians differ with Irwin Schiff's approach to fighting taxes,
the treatment he received in court and in prison was appalling," said Nicholas
Sarwark. "He was a kind, jovial man who believed deeply in a cause Libertarians
embrace: The federal income tax must go, along with the high government
spending that it funds."
Irwin Schiff's son Peter wrote:
"My father was serving a fourteen-year sentence that he began serving ten years
ago, at the age of 77. That sentence turned into a life sentence, as my father
failed to survive until his planned 2017 release date. However in actuality the
life sentence amounted to a death sentence. My father died from skin cancer
that went undiagnosed and untreated while he was in federal custody. The skin
cancer then led to a virulent outbreak of lung cancer that took his life just
more than two months after his initial diagnosis.
"The unnecessarily cruel twist in his final years occurred seven years ago when
he reached his 80th birthday. At that point the government moved him from an
extremely low security federal prison camp in New York State where he was
within easy driving distance from family and friends, to a federal correctional
institute, first in Indiana and then in Texas. This was done specially to give
him access to better medical care. The trade off was that my father was forced
to live isolated from those who loved him. Given that visiting him required
long flights, car rentals, and hotel stays, his visits were few and far
between. Yet while at these supposed superior medical facilities, my father
received virtually no medical care at all, not even for the cataracts that left
him legally blind, until the skin cancer on his head had spread to just about
every organ in his body.
"At the time of his diagnosis in early August of this year, he was given four
to six mouths to live. We tried to get him out of prison on compassionate
release so that he could live out the final months of his life with his family,
spending some precious moments with the grandchildren he had barely known. But
he did not live long enough for the bureaucratic process to be completed. Two
months after the process began, despite the combined help of a sitting
Democratic U.S. congresswoman and a Republican U.S. senator, his petition was
still sitting on someones desk waiting for yet another signature, even though
everyone at the prison actually wanted him released. Even as my father lay
dying in intensive care, a phone call came in from a lawyer and the Bureau of
Prisons in Washington asking the prison medical representatives for more proof
of the serious nature of my fathers condition.
"As the cancer consumed him his voice changed, and the prison phone system no
longer recognized it, so he could not even talk with family members on the
phone during his finale month of life. When his condition deteriorated to the
point where he needed to be hospitalized, government employees blindly
following orders kept him shackled to his bed. This despite the fact that
escape was impossible for an 87 year old terminally ill, legally blind patient
who could barley breathe, let alone walk.
"Whether or not you agree with my fathers views on the Federal Income Tax, or
the manner by which it is collected, its hard to condone the way he was
treated by our government. He held his convictions so sincerely and so
passionately that he continued to espouse them until his dying breath. Like
William Wallace in the final scene of Braveheart, an oppressive government may
have succeeded in killing him, but they did not break his spirit.
Schiff's many friends in the Libertarian Party would agree that repealing the
federal income tax is the only way to ensure that travesties of justice like
this don't continue to occur -- and the Libertarian Party is the only U.S.
political party that for the past 40 years has called for the repeal of the
federal income tax.
"We must abolish the IRS and end any need for a regulatory agency that snoops
into people's private lives," said Libertarian Party spokesperson Carla Howell.
"Drawing down federal spending to the level of 1992, for example, would be more
than enough to fulfill the government's constitutional duties to protect our
life, liberty, and property. This will allow us to balance the budget
immediately, end the federal income tax completely, and give back an average of
more than $12,000 to every family in America."
"We don't need an income tax, and we certainly don't need the IRS," Howell said.
"Abolishing the income tax will make living in America and doing business in
America much better," Howell said. "Individuals, businesses, and political
organizations will all be safe from government interrogation and free to
express their political views. It will dramatically increase the wealth of the
private sector and inspire hundreds of billions of dollars in investment in
small businesses and American jobs."
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The above is a combination of two articles available online:
http://www.lp.org/blogs/staff/libertarian-tax-protester-irwin-schiff-dies-in-prison
https://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/libertarian-party-dont-waste-time-investigating-irs-abolish-it-now-along-with
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NOTE: This article is also posted to the LPVA Facebook page -- discuss it in
the comments:
https://www.facebook.com/LPVirginia/posts/1165835116777920
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-- end --
The above is a combination of two articles available online:
http://www.lp.org/blogs/staff/libertarian-tax-protester-irwin-schiff-dies-in-prison
https://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/libertarian-party-dont-waste-time-investigating-irs-abolish-it-now-along-with
Additional resources:
Libertarian Party of Minnestoa's statement on Schiff:
https://www.facebook.com/LPMINNESOTA/posts/870036293046172
The Death of an American Political Prisoner, by Tom Knapp:
http://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/3330
********************************************
VOTE LIBERTARIAN! * http://Join.LPVA.com * 1-800-ELECT-US
********************************************
RUN FOR OFFICE!
The Libertarian Party of Virginia is currently seeking candidates to run for
public office for the 2016 season. Let us know:
http://Campaign.LPVA.com
********************************************
-- end --
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