Blog Archive

Monday, October 18, 2010

Joe Miller’s private security force falsely ‘arrests’ and handcuffs progressive blogger, Tony Hopfinger, at the Anchorage Central Middle School during a public event, for trespassing!!!


October 18, 2010
From the land that gave us Sarah Palin — who in turn gave us Tea Party extremists like Miller — comes a TP story that deserves reposting by all progressive bloggers:




A private security force hired by Joe Miller (R-AK) detains a blogger that asked Miller a critical question
Private security guards hired by Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller handcuffed a progressive blogger and claimed that the blogger was “under arrest” after the blogger asked Miller a question about why he was disciplined in a previous job:
The editor of the Alaska Dispatch website was arrested by U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller’s private security guards Sunday as the editor attempted to interview Miller at the end of a public event in an Anchorage school. 
Tony Hopfinger was handcuffed by the guards and detained in a hallway at Central Middle School until Anchorage police came and told the guards to release Hopfinger. [...] 
One of the guards grabbed Hopfinger’s video camera. Later, Hopfinger said that when he got the camera back, the segment covering the span of the arrest was missing. An Anchorage police officer offered to take the camera into custody and have it examined in the crime lab to investigate whether evidence had been destroyed, but Hopfinger declined. He said he needed the camera and the remaining video for his work. 
The guard who grabbed the camera said Hopfinger had dropped it in the scuffle and denied erasing anything. The guard wouldn’t give his name. 
While Hopfinger was still in handcuffs, the guards attempted to prevent other reporters from talking to him and threatened them too with arrest for trespass. A Daily News reporter interviewed Hopfinger anyway. No other reporters were arrested, though a few shoving matches and chest bumps ensued as the guards attempted to cordon off Hopfinger and block photographs and videos from being taken of the bizarre school scene.
Miller’s belief that he can hire a goon squad to falsely arrest people who disagree with him is, sadly, part of a much larger pattern. “This behavior is particularly disturbing, especially for someone who claims to be a ‘constitutional conservative,’” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who is waging a write-in campaign against Miller, said.

Miller — aka “Mr. Noun, Verb and Unconstitutional” — is best known for decreeing that laws he disagrees with must be unconstitutional. Miller has previously claimed that the federalminimum wageSocial SecurityMedicareMedicaidunemployment benefits, and even federal child labor laws violate the Constitution — although his opposition to these programs hasn’t prevented him from tapping into them whenever his family qualified for benefits.

In other words, Miller really only follows one rule: “whatever Joe Miller wants; that’s the rule.”

– A Think Progress cross-post.  Wikipedia entry on ‘macaca‘.
Related Post:

16 Responses 

  1. Mike Roddy says:
    We saw this dark side when the Bush Administration was in charge. Next time they’re in power it will be worse. The task in the meantime will be to awaken the American people to the fact that people like Miller are not in the American tradition at all. Let’s see if the Democrats are willing to stand up to them, including the oil company stooges who are causing so much trouble in Congress.
  2. Peter M says:
    Seems like the ‘Brain Police’ are out in force
    an eerie throwback to Germany in 1934.
  3. Doug Bostrom says:
    As fans of the emerging, burgeoning school of American Dadaist politics, Miller’s followers and their analogues around the country will be enthusiastically casting their ballots this year, hoping for more and bigger entertainments. If you’re of a more practical bent and yet cannot find the energy to vote this year, expect to be filled with regret.
  4. Joe Miller was,
    ‘In 2008 he was disciplined for misusing the borough’s computers for political purposes.’
    according to Wiki at
    http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Joe_Miller_(Alaska_politician)
    Scarry. I thought one Chuck Norris was more than enough.
  5. Lou Grinzo says:
    People like to quote the old line about how we get the government we deserve. Well, this post demonstrates in sickening detail what we’re going to get, barring some truly remarkable reversal of the trend.
    Is anyone out there listening, or is everyone too busy playing with their iPads and iPods, obsessing over the NFL games, and other ephemera?
    Yeah… that’s what I thought.
  6. Andy says:
    Trespass at a public school during a public event?
  7. Jim Groom says:
    All in all what a class act this fellow has become. No surprise considering the source. This country is in for a bumby ride for next couple of years. Perhaps in 2012 after the GOP congress has clearly shown the poor voters that they have nothing to offer something might get done regarding a ‘real’ climate bill. We can always hope…can’t we?
  8. Ominous Clouds Overhead says:
    I find this disgusting and hope the scoundrel gets what he deserves, I wish I were the one to give it to him, personally, right in the…well, you get the idea. I hope the blogger sues him up the you-know-what.
    Anyway, I went to a coffeeshop today here in Colorado and was behind a gal in line who was covered in tattoos and talking with great volume on her cellphone (while holding up the line) about how she lied about her kid being sick to get off work and a million other things I wouldn’t admit to myself alone in the dark, if that were my life, yet alone in public. The barrista, a sweet sensible looking girl, exchanged a look with me that clearly asked the same question I had – are humans devolving? This is in answer to Lou Grinzo’s Is anyone out there listening, or is everyone too busy playing with their iPads and iPods…
  9. Later, Hopfinger said that when he got the camera back, the segment covering the span of the arrest was missing. An Anchorage police officer offered to take the camera into custody and have it examined in the crime lab to investigate whether evidence had been destroyed, but Hopfinger declined. He said he needed the camera and the remaining video for his work.
    Hopfinger should copy out the remaining video, stop recording anything else into the camera, and then hand it over to someone who can try to extract the arrest footage.
    The footage may be inadmissible in a court of law, but let’s see how it fares in the court of public opinion.
    – frank
  10. Paulm says:
    Ok, now if Hopfinger had a bunch of private security guards, I wonder what would have happened?
  11. Jay Dee Are says:
    Decoding Hacker (#9): Good idea. If the erased portion can be recovered, there may be a case against these SA-type storm troopers for obstruction of justice.
  12. catman306 says:
    Lionel A. Smith, thanks for the Wiki link. This guy needs a better razor. His security reminds me of what happened to Alex’s (from A Clockwork Orange) thug friends. They all became police. Crime problem solved!
    Did you know that ‘Wayne’ is the most common name for serial killers? No foolin’!
  13. Mike says:
    New poll by conservative group shows Democrat closing in on Alaska Senate race
    Oct 14 2010
    Democrat Scott McAdams is pulling closer to Republican Joe Miller and write-in candidate Lisa Murkowski in Alaska’s Senate race, according to a new poll by the conservative Club for Growth (CFG) that was released Thursday.
    Miller, who defeated the Murkowski, the sitting incumbent senator, in the August primary, had 33 percent support in the telephone survey of 400 likely voters. Murkowski had 31 percent, and McAdams had a surprising 27 percent.
    http://dailycaller.com/ 2010/ 10/ 14/ new-poll-by-conservative-group-shows-democrat-closing-in-on-alaska-senate-race/
  14. catman306 says:
    That’s: Wayne is the most common MIDDLE name…
  15. Doug Bostrom says:
    Forgot to mention, the teenagers parading in their “Let’s Pretend Secret Service!” outfits score an easy “11″ on the pathetic scale. I wonder if the earpieces are actually connected to anything?
    Miller’s obviously got some kind of major ego problem; draping himself with a fantasy security detail is diagnostic of megalomania, surely.
  16. catman306 says:
    Those security guards have haircuts that active duty or reserve military might sport these days. Could they be moonlighting? Would that be legal?
    Skin heads shave their heads.
    People who cut their own hair use clippers with 1/4″, 3/8″, or 1/2″ guards.
    No friend or spouse would do that to someone that they liked.
    All three guards pictured are shaved on the sides, but longer on the top. That screams military. No policeman or security guard around here would have a haircut like theirs. IMHO

    More comments on the Think Progress page:  http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/18/miller-private-police/

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