Idaho Observer: Patriots MUST stand for Wayne Fincher or they will fall, one by one, to U.S. military authority

Patriots MUST stand for Wayne Fincher or they will fall, one by one, to U.S. military authority

Fourth-generation Fayetteville, Arkansan Wayne Fincher, 60, founded the Arkansas Constitutional Militia in 1994. The group has operated openly as a public service organization for educational purposes and to aid local governments in times of emergency. Now he is in jail for allegedly not paying a federal tax on a few guns though he appears to be in 100 percent compliance with the laws of Arkansas.

Peaceful Arkansan arrested under pretense of gun laws violations; reasons for his persecution appear to run deeper than guns

"On Wednesday, November 8, 2006, federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF ) and the FBI—assisted by Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Fayetteville Police Department, Springdale Police Department, Arkansas State Police, Arkansas State Bomb Squad and the Madison County Sheriff’s Department, raided the home of and arrested 60-year-old Hollis Wayne Fincher, who resides near Fayetteville, Arkansas, in Washington County for allegedly possessing illegal firearms. According to the ATF press release, Fincher was arrested as part of the federal gun violence prevention program, Project Safe Neighborhoods, which locals claim has ignored the growing gangs in the area," reported Loretta Weston of the American Family Voice, an independent newspaper from Russellville, Arkansas.

On Monday, Nov. 20, Fincher will be arraigned again and indicted. At this time we believe he is going to be charged with violations of Title 26—failure to pay federal taxes on a few guns. Why would the government spend thousands of dollars coordinating and performing a paramilitary, multijurisdictional raid on a notoriously peaceful and non-violent man, take him into custody, throw him in jail, ransack his home, seize his property and records and prepare indictments—when it could have just sent him a bill and provided a time and place to discuss it?"

BATF agent Wade Vittitow claims Fincher’s arrest was the result of an 8-month investigation brought about by an article about Fincher and the Arkansas Constitutional Militia published in The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas March 18, 2006. Circumstances indicate that the feds, armed with the Patriot Act and the new Military Commissions Act that legally (not lawfully) empowers them to identify, detain and punish those arbitrarily deemed "illegal enemy combatants" or "terrorists," are in league with local interests who find Fincher "inconvenient."

His county and influential people in it have been trying to pass a land-use ordinance in the remote and rural area where Fincher has 120 acres and a home that has been in the family for four generations. At public meetings called "quorum courts," Fincher has been (peaceably) obstructing passage of the ordinance.

On the day of his arrest, the quorum court convened and passed the ordinance in his absence and another man who opposed its passage was removed from the "court."

Fincher refused to accept an agreement that would have secured his release from jail pending trial—with title to his property and a series of impossible restrictions as "security."

Fincher has support in his immediate community. I feel very strongly that we are a part of his extended community and dutibound to voice our support for Fincher

Note: Since press time, Fincher has been charged with gun laws violations—not Title 26 tax-related charges.