The Department of Public Safety has decided to investigate Joe Miller's private Gestapo. Update!

God I LOVE this picture!

From the Alaska Dispatch (Who else?):

The firm Drop Zone Security is apparently being investigated by the state Department of Public Safety in connection with its handling of a Joe Miller campaign event on Sunday where Drop Zone agents arrested and handcuffed Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger.

The DPS case comes as public attention remains focused on questions surrounding the incident, including why Miller employed private security guards, some of whom were active-duty military, and what led to the physical confrontation that ended with Hopfinger's arrest.

Alaska Dispatch had called DPS Monday to find out whether Drop Zone was licensed as a security company by the state and whether Fulton, its owner, has a valid security guard license as would be required by the state.

Early Tuesday morning, Peters left a voicemail on a Dispatch reporter's phone saying the company did not have a security guard license.

A couple hours later, however, she said she couldn't say anything more about the company or the case because DPS had started an investigation based on numerous questions from reporters. And again, she won't say specifically that Drop Zone is the subject of the investigation.

Okay, seriously I am going to need MUCH more popcorn for this!

(Don't forget to read the entire Alaska Dispatch article, there are many more goodies to be found there.)

Update: I visited the Drop Zone building yesterday just to check the place out.

When you enter the front door there is an immediate sense of claustrophobia, acerbated by the fact that what is causing the closed in feeling is shelf after shelf of khaki colored military apparel and equipment.  (As I told one friend, it looked like General Patton had exploded in the place.)


Essentially the place looked like a militia member's wet dream with helmets, camouflaged bullet proof vests, and military paraphernalia on every wall and shelf in the tiny, closed in, cramped little building. (Have I mentioned the sense of claustrophobia yet?) 

The rather young man behind the counter looked a little spooked by my presence and when i asked a few, I felt innocent questions about where they get their merchandise (from military auctions by the way), he immediately asked if I was a reporter.  I said no (That is mostly true), and asked if they were having a lot of trouble with reporters.

"Oh yeah!" he said.

I wandered around the building (That took about ten seconds.) before choosing a duffel bag that I thought I could use to store some of my exercise equipment, and then went back up to the counter to make my purchase.

When I whipped out my debit card the clerk told me that I would have to use the broken down old ATM machine next to the cash register and withdraw cash to pay for it as they ONLY accepted cash.  I asked why, and he told me they had trouble with credit cards in the past. (Of course it might have something to do with the fact that they have not had a business license for much of this last year.)

As I was waiting for the world's slowest ATM machine to cough up my cash, the phone rang.  When the young man answered the line was dead.  He then hung it back up and  said 'Yeah THAT keeps happening too."

"What?" I asked.

"People keep calling and hanging up.  Or yelling things at us and hanging up." 

"Well that's a bummer." I said.

I had noticed a t-shirt hanging on the wall advertising bail bonds service.  So I asked if Drop Zone was in that business as well.

The kid suddenly looked a little suspicious and replied "Yeah we do a little bit of everything."

I did not bother to ask him if he did any of it well, because that seemed a little mean. (After all he was polite, if a little suspicious.)

I left the store and went out the back where I had parked, and noticed three red, white, and blue directors chairs lined up along the back next to some military vehicles and a giant banner that said "Eddie Burke for Lt. Governor" printed in big black letters.  Well THAT explains a lot, I thought.

Earlier my friend Dennis Zaki had driven by and taken a picture of the back lot, and caught the owner, William Fulton, sitting in one of those star spangled "ass holders." (As my father would have called them.)

So after seeing this pitiful little excuse for a business I have to wonder WHY Miller chose them to provide the security (That he absolutely did NOT need!), when there are many reputable and LICENSED security agencies in Anchorage?  I mean it only takes a few minutes of being inside of this sorry excuse for a business to realize that these guys are NOT professional.

My feeling is that this group's ties to the Alaska Citizens Militia may have played a very large part in his decision to hire them, and it also speaks to how Miller would represent Alaska in Washington.

He is clearly a very unstable individual, with fantasies of a para-military response to the Federal government dancing in his head, and he is NOT the man we want to represent us in Washington!

So if you are an Alaskan looking for sanity (And after Sarah Palin aren't we all?), then this is the candidate for you!