Private Security Guards Physically Restrain, Detain News Reporter on Public Property

The Anchorage Daily News reports that when Tony Hopfinger attempted to ask republican Senatorial candidate for Alaska Joe Miller some questions he was physically assaulted, restrained and then detained by private security guards working for the Hopfinger campaign.

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.

Hopfinger has not been charged but the owner of the Drop Zone, the private security firm that’s been providing Miller’s security, accused Hopfinger of trespassing at the public event, a town hall sponsored by the Miller campaign. The owner, William Fulton, also said Hopfinger assaulted a man by shoving him.

According to Hopfinger, it was he who was first shoved by a security guard, and then responded by pushing the man back, at which point three members of the Drop Zone private security firm put him in an arm lock and handcuffed him.

Hopfinger reportedly recorded the entire thing on his video camera, but it was seized by one of the private guards and upon return of the camera, the footage had been deleted.

Prosecutors are trying to determine whether they will be pressing charges in the case.

Hopfinger was on public property, at an event open to the public, yet the private security firm threatened to arrest him for trespassing. Though the guards physically assaulted a private citizen on public property, it is unclear whether or not the district attorney’s office is considering filing charges against employees of the firm.