http://www.newhampshirefreepress.com/NHFreePress/?q=node/219

Lauren Canario Jailed
Sat, 09/20/2008 - 04:19 — katkanning

By Kat Kanning

(Lauren Canario)

Lauren Canario is behind bars again. Why is this quiet woman considered such a danger to society that she needs to be locked up? She was standing in an IRS office, wearing a mask from the movie “V for Vendetta”, and refused to leave when asked. This arrest was part of a series of protests of the IRS.

(Russell Kanning)

In July, 2006, Russell Kanning was arrested in the Keene IRS office for handing out a flyer which read “Hitler had a revenue department too” and which suggested that IRS employees quit their jobs. (http://www.republicofnh.org/brochure.pdf)

(Dave Ridley)

Then in September of 2006, Dave Ridley held a silent demonstration in the Nashua IRS office. He held a sign and passed out flyers “questioning the morality of working for an institution which funds waste and torture.” Later he was ticketed for “distribution of handbills” and fined $125. When Ridley refused to pay the fine, he was given 4 days jail time on July 17, 2007.

(Kat and Russell Kanning)

To protest his incarceration, I went to the Keene IRS office on July 19th, 2007 with a sign that read “Taxes pay for Torture”. Lauren Canario accompanied me into the IRS office wearing her V mask. We were both arrested and released that day. Neither of us showed up in court for the tickets we received that day, nor did we pay the fines.

Canario was apparently lured into the Federal Courthouse when they agreed to return the video camera they stole from her in September of 2007. Lauren had been attempting to go to a party given by tax-truthers Ed and Elaine Brown when she was arrested for refusing to turn back at the government barricade. The feds stole her camera at this time and refused many times to return her property. Then a few days ago,Federal Marshal Gary DiMartino agreed to return the camera. When Lauren showed up to get her property, she was arrested and charged with Failure to Appear and Failure to Obey (clearly she's been arrested for things she DIDN'T do!). The camera was returned to Lauren's husband, Jim Johnson, after her arrest yesterday. Johnson said that exchanging his wife for the camera was a poor trade.

According to others who have been imprisoned there, the federal courthouse holding cells in Concord are among the coldest. Holding this slight woman in a 50 degree cell could easily be construed as torture. You don't even have to go to Guantanamo to find torture by the US Government these days!

Lauren refused to walk into her arraignment, instead was wheeled into the courtroom in a wheelchair. She refused to speak to the judge. He ordered her imprisoned until they have a trial-for-looks on Wednesday, September 24 at 1:30 pm at the Federal Courthouse in Concord.