Wesley Snipes Fights On for All of Us
Days after being ordered to begin serving an extreme three-year prison term for failing to file tax returns, actor Wesley Snipes vows to continue fighting his 2008 misdemeanor conviction.
Snipes, a self-described possessor of gnostic wisdom and co-star of the prophetic libertarian epic Demolition Man (a synopsis of which you can read in futuristic English here), humbly calls himself an idealistic artist "unschooled in the science of law and finance." But he is a principled tax protester whose arguments against federal confiscation of private income are real if not always persuasive.
It's also worth remembering that Snipes was in fact acquitted on tax fraud charges. The lengthy prison term over minor convictions was handed out in an overt attempt to make an example of the movie star and terrify other conscientious income tax opponents.
Excessive penalties for demonstration purposes are by their nature despotic and in conflict with any notion of equal protection under the law. That should shock the conscience no matter what you think of tax protest as a concept or To Wong Foo as a movie. Good luck to Snipes in his campaign for freedom and justice.
