IRS Employees Face Rising Threats

IRS Employees Face Rising Threats
Armed Escorts for Employees Amid Fear of Copy-Cat Attacks

Originally Posted At ABC News
By Isa Jones and Pierre Thomas
February 23, 2010

A suicidal pilot's attack on an Internal Revenue Service building in Austin, Texas, last week was the worst but hardly the lone example of threats against the tax agency, according to the U.S. government.

The number of threats against the tax-collection agency has increased significantly in recent years, Treasury Department officials said.

There were 1,200 threats and assaults against IRS employees from 2001 to 2008, resulting in 195 convictions, according to officials. J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, said threats that once averaged 170 or so a year are now up to about 900.

Some recent examples: a man in tax trouble hired someone to kill an IRS employee in Tampa, Fla.; an Alabama man tried to use his car as a deadly weapon by driving into an IRS building; and two arsonists in Colorado Springs, Colo., used a sledge hammer to break into and then torch an IRS building.

Some threats are so serious that armed escorts join IRS employees at meetings with potentially dangerous taxpayers.

The agency deployed such protection for IRS employees 23 times from April to September last year under a new initiative, according to Treasury officials. It's not unusual, the IRS said, to dispatch a protection agent once a week for one of its 90,000 employees.

Fathali Moghaddam, a Georgetown University psychology professor, blamed the rise in these kinds of threats on a difficult economic climate that leads to discontent and frustration in people. There's also global insecurity because of the greater interconnectedness of the modern world, he said.

"There are all kinds of threats against us, and citizens have a social contract," Moghaddam said. "They ask, 'Is the government protecting us from economic downturn, from terrorism?' There is a feeling that authorities are not doing enough, that Americans are paying their tax dollars and are looking for government to do something, but they look incompetent."

More Enforcement, More Threats

Inspector general George said, "There is a direct rise between enhanced enforcement efforts and direct threats made against IRS employees."

Given last week's attack, he said, "I have to say I am concerned about copy cats."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman on Monday toured the remains of the damaged IRS building in Austin, where nearly 200 IRS employees worked. They expressed condolences to the family of the IRS employee who died in the attack.

"I just want to say how proud we are of the men and women of the IRS," Geithner said. "We came to show them respect and support."

ABC News' Jack Cloherty and Jason Ryan contributed to this report.

Times247.com Poll

Public Opinion View Results

Recent News

UK says elderly are “wasting" too many bedrooms

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Source: Canada Free Press

In yet another outrageous piece of social engineering from the British government, pensioners will be encouraged to downsize to smaller properties allowing local government councils to rent their homes out as public housing and manage the tenancy.
Read Full Story

Federal Employee Gravy Train

Monday, January 30, 2012

Source: The Washington Times

Federal workers earn 16 percent more in total compensation — including wages and benefits — than comparable private-sector employees, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The key difference is in benefits, where federal workers average more than $20 per hour in compensation — 48 percent higher than the $13.60 in prorated hourly benefits in the private sector.
Read Full Story

Ind. Lawmakers: "Pee Test For Thee But Not For Me"

Friday, January 27, 2012

Source: Huffington Post

A member of the Indiana General Assembly withdrew his bill to create a pilot program for drug testing welfare applicants Friday after one of his colleagues amended the measure to require drug testing for lawmakers.
Read Full Story

America, arms-dealer to the world

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Source: Salon.com

Retired lieutenant colonel's take on the military-industrial complex: As a country, we seem to have a teenager’s fascination with military hardware, an addiction that’s driving us to bust our own national budgetary allowance. At the same time, we sell weapons the way teenage punks sell fireworks to younger kids: for profit and with little regard for how they might be used.
Read Full Story

Still Convinced Tax Increases Work?

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Source: CBSChicago.com

After largest tax increase in Illinois' history, the state still can't pay its bills. Only solution is to cut government spending says state comptroller.
Read Full Story

GOP Voters Split On Interventionism

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Source: The Washington Times

Nearly half of all Republican primary voters say it’s time the U.S. stops intervening in world affairs and focuses on domestic priorities instead, signaling a persistent rift that is playing out in the party’s presidential nomination battle.
Read Full Story

CNN Poll: Obama tied with Romney & Paul in November showdowns

Monday, January 16, 2012

Source: CNN

New CNN/ORC International Poll released Monday also indicates that Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas are running even with President Obama in possible showdown this November.
Read Full Story

Solid Majority Want ObamaCare Repealed

Monday, January 9, 2012

Source: Rasmussen Reports

Most voters still want to see the national health care law repealed and believe repeal of the controversial measure is likely.
Read Full Story

Obama Darling of the Military-Industrial Complex

Friday, January 13, 2012

Source: Raw Story

President Obama is leading the pack in donations from the defense industry: according to the Center for Responsive Politics, he’d taken in almost $112,000 from defense industry donors through December 2011, twice as much as Mitt Romney, the leading Republican recipient of defense-industry campaign contributions.
Read Full Story

How Much Abuse Will We Accept From Government?

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Source: Huffington Post

Jail inmate dies after deputies directly sprayed him and fogged his cell with pepper spray at least 8 times. Deputies then put him into a restraining chair, a controversial device that binds inmates at both wrists, both ankles, and across the chest, and then sprayed him at least two more times after he had been strapped to the chair. He was also stripped naked, and outfitted with a "spit mask," a hood designed to prevent inmates from spitting on jail personnel, which kept the pepper spray in close proximity to his nose and mouth, ensuring he would continue to inhale it for the full six hours he was in the restraint chair.
Read Full Story

Read All Recent News

Get in the Know Now
Get SSI Email Alerts

Social Networks

Action Center