As protests go, Monday's demonstration at the Internal Revenue Service office in Jamestown seemed to accomplish its main goals:
About 70 protesters, carrying carnations and signs such as "Milk Cows, Not People," made their public point and were allowed inside to talk civilly with IRS officials about the Jacob Lapp case.

The Lapps stopped filing federal income-tax returns in 1991, contending that it was impossible to provide accurate earnings and wage data for their Cassadaga dairy farm. In an action that threatens the farm, the IRS is seeking $ 51,000 from the family in wage deductions, penalties and interest.

Unable to get the Lapps to answer charges in court, the IRS last month seized the family's check for milk the farm sold to a processor.
"We very peaceably and in a nonhostile way went in and expressed our desire for the IRS to meet publicly with Jacob Lapp," said Frank Parlato Jr., a spokesman for a citizens' committee demanding fair treatment for the Lapps.
When told that the IRS cannot do its business in public, Parlato replied:"Your business is the public. What other business do you have?"
For nearly an hour, four or five protesters at a time were allowed inside the IRS office to talk with officials. Those discussions, according to Parlato, led the IRS to agree to meet with the Lapps at some time in the presence of witnesses.

"They said they would meet publicly if we limited the total number of participants from the public and the media," Parlato said.
IRS officials later did not dispute that version, although they said they were forbidden by law from talking about any specific case.
"We're willing to meet with any taxpayer," said IRS spokesman Laurie Ruffino. "We do, on occasion, meet outside government offices in a place that is conducive to conducting business. . . . We will allow a taxpayer to bring in witnesses."

The IRS's job is to administer the nation's tax laws, as they are written, Ruffino said. If citizens do not like the way laws are written or enforced, they have two recourses: getting Congress to change the laws or taking a case to court.

On Monday, each side praised the other for the non-violent demonstration that allowed the two sides to talk to each other.
"These are good people," Parlato said of the IRS officials. "They've just been vested with too much authority."

Jacob Lapp appeared during Monday's demonstration but would not go inside to meet with IRS officials under those circumstances.
"I'm more interested in making a point than in anything else," he said.
"The point is that our government is not serving the people."

Speaking to his supporters, Lapp said: "No tax in all of human history has ruined so many lives, wrecked so many homes, killed so many chances, destroyed so many businesses, created so many tax slaves."
Elwin H. Powell, a University at Buffalo sociology professor, called the protest an important first step in forcing the IRS to break its secrecy.
"Government secrecy promotes deceit, corruption and abuse of power," Powell said.