Joe Miller’s private security goons handcuffed and “arrested” Tony Hopfinger, a reporter for the Alaska Dispatch, yesterday at a campaign event, confiscated his video camera, and returned it with all details of the arrest erased. Miller claims that the gathering, held at a school gym, was private and the reporter was trespassing, but here’s the Anchorage Daily News:
The 3 p.m. town hall was billed by the Miller campaign as a chance for voters to “hear Joe Miller speak for himself.” It was hardly a private gathering. In a Facebook message, the campaign urged Miller supporters to bring their “friends, colleagues, family, acquaintances, neighbors.” And continuing what has become its anti-media theme, the campaign added, “Don’t let the media skew your views.”
It’s nice to see a newspaper simply call bullshit on a politician. And what bullshit it is — as the Dispatch’s own coverage shows, Hopfinger is clearly a dangerous individual, perhaps a terrorist:
[Miller goon] Fulton said Hopfinger was special because he showed those signs of “violence.” Friends of Hopfinger said the reporter has been known to lose his temper and yell at people on occasion, but he’s a bit florid, visibly out of shape, and no apparent threat in scuffle. Some of his friends joke that his wife could probably take him in a fight.
The ADN has a banner ad from Murowski claiming that a vote for the Democrat, Scott McAdams, is a “vote for Miller”, but I’d argue that you better know how to spell “Murkowski” and print very neatly if you’re going to vote for her, because Miller is going to challenge every write-in ballot that doesn’t exhibit model penmanship.
WereBear (itouch)
And this is a serious candidate how?
The Grand Panjandrum
I highly recommend Hopfinger carry some Counter Assault to protect himself from these goons. Non-lethal, but highly effective for personal defense. You never know when the teahadis will go all thuggish on you.
c u n d gulag
Apparently, it’s not “Don’t let the media skew your views,” it’s, ‘Don’t let the public know your views,’ or, ‘Don’t let the media show your views.’
Well, I suppose we have Stealth Bombers in Alaska, so why not a ‘Stealth Candidate?”
What an ASSHOLE!!!
MattF
Thugs. Not wearing brown shirts, but that’s a fashion detail.
Michael
@WereBear (itouch):
Because we white people loooooove us some strong opinions that keep white people atop the heap, regardless of how stupid the bases for those opinions are or how much thuggery has to be employed to keep questioners at bay. It is all freedom and stuff.
I always loved this poster…
calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters/frei.jpg
Another good one, with an expression so wonderful that it could have come directly from FreedomWorks:
calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters/hitlerred.jpg
bkny
‘dropzone’ security … jesus, these bully boyz and their booyah dreams.
Comrade Javamanphil
To be fair, the First amendment does have a lot of commas so it can be difficult to understand that part about a free press.
El Cid
Just in time, the AP notices something interesting about the Congress the Democrats are likely to lose.
Hmmm. Maybe if there hadn’t been a pressing need to generate several dozen stories every single day about the revolutionary nature of our TeaTard movement, people could possibly have understood something like this.
Oh well.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Hey, hey, hey now. Don’t call them private security goons. Or even swaggering bully boys who’d wet their pants and run in a real fight. They’re a living testament to Miller’s commitment to the Free Market. Please make a note of it.
And then Miller blamed Obama for the fact that they couldn’t do anything to erase the details from the memories of the witnesses. If it weren’t for rampant soshulism they’d have a Memory Zapper like the Men in Black use!
Seriously, what is the protocol for being grabbed by someone who isn’t a law enforcement officer? My instinct would be to inflict maximum damage now and ask questions later but are there any laws about assaulting privately hired security?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@El Cid:
Shut up! Obama and the Dems did absolutely nothing and have been a total failure! I mean really fail! Really! Did I say really?
Well, really. No, really! It’s all in the news!
gene108
@El Cid: I think history will remember this as how the Republicans firmly established their brand: lose big, shift right and obstruct the hell out of the Democrats.
It worked for them in 1994 and seems to be working now, even though there obstruction has actually hurt the economy more than its helped.
debbie
Obviously, another member of the lamestream media violating the original intent of the Constitution.
debbie
Maybe it’s time for Republicans to worry: Obama appeared at Ohio State yesterday to a loud and cheering crowd of 35,000 — some who had been waiting for more than 12 hours! Two scary things they should note: there was no enthusiasm gap anywhere to be seen, and there were tons of college students in the crowd.
debit
I am sure that somewhere Sarah Palin is thinking “I can have my people arrest the media? I wish I’d known that when during my Katie Couric interview.”
Legalize
Principled proponents of limited government!!!!111
Linda Featheringill
Ah, Mr. Miller. That was probably counterproductive.
If you think that the press didn’t like you before this . . . . .
arguingwithsignposts
@debbie:
If Fox News reports it *at all*, it will be an estimated 3,500.
rickstersherpa
These are such “liberty” loving people are they not? Another thing about this crew is that since they 1) hate Government; 2) believe that the prime ethical directive is to enrich themselves; and 3) God will forgive them no matter what crimes they commit because Jesus has saved them, they are going to selling votes and rigging contracts and Government policy for themselves and their friends since they don’t see any other purpose for Government.
arguingwithsignposts
OMG!! 1! A recording device. Up against the wall, miscreant.
SP
@debbie- I tried to see him in Boston on Saturday but gave up, the line was about a mile long. But there were about 20 Tea Party protesters there too!
MattMinus
Ummm, isn’t the technical term for being handcuffed by private security “kidnapping”?
TR
I thought Alaska politicians were supposed to get elected first and then become power mad. Looks like Oily McCreepybeard here is trying to get off to a record start.
TR
@MattMinus:
Unlawful detention, at the very least.
SP
Joe Miller is just demonstrating the efficiency of the private sector. Public police won’t arrest members of the media who ask you annoying questions (heck, they come and release them after you’ve locked them up), only private security companies are efficient enough to really protect our candidates from this menace.
Omnes Omnibus
@kommrade reproductive vigor: Suing for false imprisonment is always an option.
windshouter
I know people in Alaska are tough, but tough in sort of a physical way. In the ways of politics, Washington is the toughest place in the world. If you are scared of reporters in Alaska, you really need to not go to Washington.
arguingwithsignposts
@windshouter:
Oh, I don’t know about that. Throw them a BBQ and act like a “maverick” every once in a while and they’ll treat you with kid gloves.
Omnes Omnibus
@arguingwithsignposts: Do we know if Miller even has a tire swing? It seems to be helpful for media relations.
artem1s
@debbie:
more important, Columbus was firmly in GOP hands just a few years back. It’s been interesting to watch the state capital reject the party that has been running the state for so long.
Tom Levenson
@windshouter: Word.
beergoggles
@Michael:
A bit too early in the morning to be quoting Angela Merkel isn’t it? /tic
TR
@arguingwithsignposts:
Hell, mock them as “the lamestream media” and refuse to answer any of their questions, and they’ll just dutifully report every single Tweet and Facebook update you make.
The DC media isn’t tough. They’re masochists who love to be abused.
mk3872
Friggin’ Goon Squad … ;)
cleek
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
beats me, but i know i’d be ringing the phone of the every civil rights lawyer in the phone book, if such a thing happened to me.
debbie
@artem1s:
Actually, Ohio Republicans have been just as obstructionist as their national counterparts for the length of the Strickland administration. For both budget and education funding, they simply put up their hands and said the governor had to submit a plan to them and then only after that, would they offer up their ideas. I believe it wasn’t until mid-December that they even started voting on legislation (up until then, there’d been less than 15 bills passed for the entire year).
Strickland hasn’t particularly distinguished himself (esp. on video slots), but after a brief honeymoon and an instance or two of bipartisan legislation at the very beginning, Republicans settled into their “no” ways. I wonder if they were “redirected” by the national GOP.
KCinDC
Greenwald:
Violet
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
According to Citizens for Palin it’s all totally legal under the “citizen’s arrest” doctrine. Because the reporter was acting all scary and violet, the goons just had to hogtie him.
Freaking scary. When I checked last night, the comments at ADN were pretty much all against this and Miller. I wonder if this will resonate in Alaska and won’t help Miller at all.
cleek
in Soviet Alaska, private sector detains you for speaking to not-yet government !
/yakov smirnoff
Bullsmith
Isn’t this kidnapping? Forcible confinement?
arguingwithsignposts
@Violet:
I can’t see this helping Miller with anyone outside the lunatic 27 percent.
Bella Q
@windshouter:
I know people in Alaska are tough, but tough in sort of a physical way. In the ways of politics, Washington is the toughest place in the world. If you are scared of reporters in Alaska, you really need to not go to Washington.
Word indeed. This sociopath needs to be called out for the bully that he is, loudly, repeatedly, and nationally. It’s disgusting.
El Cid
I see no reason to worry that the mass chain of securitization and tranching of mortgages may have more chaotic effects. This analysis from the Scott’s Investments blog, via the GOS.
Bella Q
While Baby Doc threw a temper tantrum at his debate, telling Conway he should be ashamed of himself for “attacking my faith.” He also announced that he would not shake Jack’s hand after the debate, and did not. But there were no security thugs with earphones to
harassareest the press.Bullsmith
@El Cid:
That’s the old law. In the bound-to-be-coming new law, chain of title works backwards: Any old bank stands up and says I own your house, end of chain.
I wish I were joking.
ppcli
@Bullsmith:
Yes, exactly. Somebody comes up to me and handcuffs me and prevents me from going where I choose to go, takes my camera and erases the record of what they’ve done. Once I’m out of their thuggish clutches I’m getting the best lawyer I can find and I’ll own their asses. Plus the asses of whoever was paying them. I don’t give a damn if they have silly uniforms that are made to look like police uniforms. They are not police, they have no special authority, they are just some guys. (I should add that I grew up in a family of policemen, and I can tell you that their opinion of rent-a-cops is lower than it is of criminals.)
GregB
But the tea-baggers have been telling me that the Democrats are the fascists?
I’m so confused.
Shorter GregB: I can see the KGB from Joe Miller’s campaign office.
El Cid
@Bullsmith: A lot of peasants, Indians, and Africans over the centuries have lost their lands to royalty and imperial forces because they couldn’t produce any documents to show they had deeds to the lands.
Tancrudo
Waiting for the other shoe to drop here. How many charges is the only question. Mix and match among:
Assault, Assault and Battery, Assault and Battery with a Deadly Weapon, Kidnapping, False Imprisonment, Destruction of Evidence, Conspiracy to Commit a Felony, Impersonating a Police Officer…
Fulton’s story changes every single time he tells it, and he will melt in court.
Stasi Joe could be in some deep shit here, and the media isn’t going to spare the ink on this one.
Steeplejack
@GregB:
__
Fix’d.
daveNYC
Hopefully a media pile-on will mean that he loses the election, but it’s a three-way race, and Joe’s core supporters will simply take any negative story in the press as proof of the evil liberal media conspiracy.
Bullsmith
@El Cid:
See there’s lots of good legal precedent for the bankers to rely on. Home “owners” should definitely be compared to Indians, or maybe better to Palestinians, more contemporary, to make it clear that they don’t really belong on “their” land in the first place.
One helpful financial innovation would be to shift the burden of proof. Rather than the bank having to prove it owns the note, borrowers should be forced to prove it doesn’t. That would simplify things.
Scott P.
Miracle Max: “Beat it, or I’ll call the brute squad.”
Fezzik: “I’m on the brute squad.”
Miracle Max: “You are the brute squad.”
Bella Q
@daveNYC: I really hope the media spares no ink, and that the law enforcement authority is going to take a responsible look at this.
Stefan
Yes, exactly. Somebody comes up to me and handcuffs me and prevents me from going where I choose to go, takes my camera and erases the record of what they’ve done. Once I’m out of their thuggish clutches I’m getting the best lawyer I can find and I’ll own their asses. Plus the asses of whoever was paying them. I don’t give a damn if they have silly uniforms that are made to look like police uniforms. They are not police, they have no special authority, they are just some guys. (I should add that I grew up in a family of policemen, and I can tell you that their opinion of rent-a-cops is lower than it is of criminals.)
Go to the best lawyer? Why wouldn’t you also go to the police to report that you’ve just been assaulted, kidnapped and robbed?
If someone comes up to me on the street, grabs me, ties me up and steals from me with threat of force then it’s armed robbery. Why is it any different if it’s done inside a high school gym by someone wearing a comic-opera costume?
Ash Can
@El Cid: Interesting story, and I don’t take issue with any of the facts it presents, but its tone is a bit on the hysterical side. Barring a virtually complete takeover of government by the Tea Party, in which case government would then for all intents and purposes cease to exist, I don’t see government entities failing across the board to take steps necessary to preserve the mortgage and banking industries, and I certainly don’t see consumers en masse saying, “If I don’t have to make mortgage payments anymore, then I don’t have to pay any of my bills anymore.” However, I do think it will be interesting to see how this all shakes out for the mortgage industry per se. I’d wager that some sort of stop-gap legal measures would be taken to basically assign ownership of a mortgage in the case of broken chains of title. That would be messy in its own right, to be sure, but not exactly the end of civilization as we know it.
celticdragonchick
@Bella Q:
Forget it, Jake.
It’s
ChinatownAlaska.Lettuce
I never thought they’d get me in the goon squad.
And if these are the guys running it? I’m safe.
Markk
Their not “bullies” which all Republicans aspire to be, they are p**sies. Cowards, all of them.
Original Lee
This Miller story makes me wonder about campus police. Aren’t they the equivalent of rent-a-cops? Can campus police make arrests, handcuff people, etc., and/or do they have to follow standard police procedure? Inquiring minds wonder if this sets a precedent for, among other things, strangling GOTV efforts at colleges and universities. (One of my more paranoid days, today.)
Howlin Wolfe
@kommrade reproductive vigor: I hope the reporter sues Miller and his campaign for false imprisonment.
Allan
Or you could vote for the marvelous candidate Scott McAdams, whose name is already pre-printed on the ballot.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@Omnes Omnibus: I suppose that’s the responsible thing to do. My idea involves GBH and sticking their Rent-A-Goon badges somewhere that will make a proctologist giggle.
Aww cute. They still have no frigging idea what they’re talking about. Even if this was grounds for a CA (and the law is a lot stricter than various works of fiction have led them to believe), why wasn’t he handed over to the real police? Whoops.
And deleting his video really, really, really can’t be justified.
geg6
@Original Lee:
I don’t know about other colleges and universities, but our campus police are actual police, certified and required to have at least a bachelor’s in criminal justice or related field. They have the exact same credentials as the PA State Police. They are not goons at all and are actually quite well liked by students and staff alike.
Senyordave
@Original Lee:
I went to a private school in Maryland, and the campus cops were rent-a-cop types (actually more like the cops from the Police Academy movies, but only the incompetent part, not the humorous part).
My brother went to U of Maryand, and the cops there were part of the state police, the whole nine yards,a nd they carried guns.
I had friends who smoked joints right in front of campus sceruity, daring them to do something (all they could do was call the police).
At U of Maryland if you did that you were arrested.
Scott P.
I can speak from personal experience that yes, they can handcuff and arrest people within their jurisdiction.
mslarry
after reading this story and sadly, others that are similar re: teahadists that refuse to speak with the press unless it’s “fox news”, I’m left wondering the following:
Being a Senator or Congresscritter is one of the most important jobs in the US. Since they work for “the people”, speaking with the press (such as it is) is akin to a job interview. So these fuckers want the job but don’t want to interview?The hell???? I’m currently an out-of-work writer based in Los Angeles and guess what? I’ve had to interview at every place I applied (even when I competed with approx. 200 people for a job at the Ralph’s supermarket to stock shelves from 10am-6am).
Listen I’m a black female under 40, I get it white folks are angry, blah blah, but the average white person in America isn’t a racist. The average “angry” white person who’s onboard with these fuckers is uninformed and scared. How I wish the dems would spend the next two weeks nationalizing this election, calling the Republicans and their candidates out across the board. I swear to you, seeing O’Donnell, Paul, Mitchell, Palladino et al, lumped together, any reasonable person of any color would be horrified.
jbb
@Original Lee
Campus police, at public universities at least, in fact have MORE authority and jurisdiction than do local police. They have state-wide jurisdiction and equivalent, if not higher, training and standards than local police. They catch a lot of jokes, but none of them are rooted in reality.
trollhattan
@cleek:
Heh, indeedy!
I’d recommend a re-look at the schoolteacher vs. Sarah video to see how badly her and Todd’s goons wanted to do the same with the cameraperson in that incident. She and Miller are two chips from the same block.
Joshua
I wonder how much the “liberal media” will talk about this, especially as it relates to the tea party’s supposed obsession with the Constitution.
I know this is an old, overused trope, but imagine if Nancy Pelosi had a private goon squad and they handcuffed James O’Keefe when he approached her. We’d never hear the end of it… with reason. This is fascist shit – a candidate for office can refuse to answer questions and deploy a private squad of thugs to “detain” anyone who dares challenge them.
But I figure IOKIYAR will be brought out in full force here. After all, that guy was a lib and probably had it coming, right?
DPirate
Nothing new, Bush did this stuff. Actually, with Bush, anyone “suspicious” (not an adulator) never got within 100 yards of his events.
They say “Lisa M.” will suffice. Who they are, I cant remember.
Benjamin Cisco
@mslarry: __
This bears repeating.
Mike G
Teatards want limited government, so as not to interfere with the free-range oppression dealt by their private goons.