In a paranoid resort to physical force the Miller campaign restrained Tony Hopfinger the editor of Alaska Dispatch in handcuffs, to keep him from putting Senatorial wannabee Joe Miller on the spot for refusing to answer questions about his past.
Alaska Dispatch editor detained at Miller event
Alaska Dispatch founder and editor Tony Hopfinger was grabbed and handcuffed by a private security detail working for U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller on Sunday while trying to ask the Fairbanks Republican questions following a town hall meeting at Central Middle School in Anchorage on Sunday.
Hopfinger was reportedly pressing Miller on whether the candidate had ever been reprimanded for politicking while working at the Fairbanks North Star Borough in 2008. Alaska Dispatch and other media have sued for the release for records related Miller's time at the borough. Various accounts of what happened next generally agree on this course of events:
* Two or three bodyguards told Hopfinger to stop asking questions and to leave the building.
* Hopfinger continued to ask questions while apparently videotaping the candidate.
* Bodyguards told him that if he persisted they would arrest him for trespassing, but refused to identify themselves to Hopfinger.
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* Hopfinger asked why he was trespassing, as the event was at a public school. Seconds later, he was then put in arm-bar and later handcuffed and sequestered at one end of a hallway for at least 30 minutes. Has told, "You're under arrest."
Last week Miller told Fox News (in a segment that wasn't broadcast) that he wouldn't talk to Alaska Media any more.
Apparently the Miller Campaign is so desperate to evade answering questions about Miller's past that they're willing to resort to Gestapo tactics.
Miller security allegedly arrests journalist at public event
Hopfinger says he waited for about half an hour in handcuffs for police to show up. No arrests have been made and no charges have been filed.
We've seen a variety of Republicans' techniques for weaseling out of answering the tough questions about their simplistic policies, and about themselves, but handcuffs? This says a lot about the Miller Campaign's paranoia, that no doubt emanates from the Candidate himself.
Update #1 with a hat tip to Cuseology. From the Anchorage Daily News:
Miller security guards handcuff editor
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 on camera at the end of a public event in an Anchorage school.
Update #2 Miller Campaign's statement in the NYT:
News Editor Detained by Security Guards for Alaska Senate Candidate
The campaign said Mr. Miller "attempted to calmly exit the facility" but that soon the private security guards, hired by the Miller campaign, "had to take action and intervened and detained the irrational blogger, whose anger overcame him." The campaign said Mr. Hopfinger "physically assaulted" someone at the event at one point.
Mr. Hopfinger told the Daily News he had shoved another man because he felt threatened after being surrounded by supporters of Mr. Miller during the incident.