Posted on 12/15/2012 10:19:45 AM PST by Daffynition
BELMONT, Maine — Mack Page was sound asleep in his bed at 11 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 3, when he was startled awake by the frantic barking of his black Labrador.
“What have I got now?” the 63-year-old commander of the Maine Militia remembers wondering. “A raccoon? A coyote?”
But it was none of those things. Instead, Page’s dark residence on a quiet Belmont road suddenly was lit up by men outside his windows carrying flashlights. He lives alone, he’s not in the best of health and he was scared.
“They called, ‘State police! Come out with your hands up!’” he said earlier this week. “I don’t know if I got paranoid or just angry, but I challenged them. ‘Who the hell are you?’ Am I going to get tazed? Am I going to get shot by somebody?’”
(Excerpt) Read more at bangordailynews.com ...
Mr. Page is lucky they didn't shoot his Lab. :(
They are lucky he didn’t “mistake” them for home intruders.
Mistake my ass.
This is probably not the last of his problems. The state police were embarrassed by their mistake and he will have to pay for that embarrassment somehow.
They were trying to provoke him. Or scare him.
The lab was inside and they didn’t break into the house. That is a plus for the cops. Not breaking in and shooting the dog, however, may well get the cops involved reprimanded at some level.
In the age of Google maps, drones filling the skies and surveillance cameras on every tree, why should anyone believe this was a mistake?
It’s no secret cops hate militias, and if it’s common knowledge that Mack is in poor health, then maybe, just maybe, a midnight visit to his home when he’s asleep...
All of this for a “potential probation violation”?
The state police have nothing better to do with their time?
Good grief.
This is not a simple misunderstanding that can be swept under the rug. To many wrong addresses keep happening.
Where I come from we call it a pretext...; )
I believe a formal investigation by a different agency with access to the anonymous informant is in order. It really sounds like a they were reminding the militia leader that they were watching him.
With that kind of an attitude, citizen, we may just have to shoot your dog next time.
Late night probation check at 11pm that includes “come out with your hands up”? Is that how they conduct probation checks in Maine? Hard to believe.
The school tragedy had the effect of sharpening public attention on guns, and if the cops had succeeded in provoking a shoot-out with a known militia member at exactly the same time, then the pressure for new gun laws about go up 500%.
Just more political treachery.
WHO was the right perp, hmmm....?? Let’s hear it.
We won’t because there IS no perp nearby —he WAS the target that night.
Uh, yes. I read almost weekly about police going to the wrong address. I realize that most cop shows (CSI, NCIS, Hawaii 5.0) are fiction, but really? With all the resources at their command, the cops can't get the correct house so many times? I'm thinking incompetence.
And that is why, "when seconds count, the police are minutes away". Stay armed and stay safe, and use your head if they break in - this man did.
I didn't read the article. That is what this was about? I don't believe it.
Gotta love PR guys. I am unclear how the phrase 'positive direction' would in apply in this situation other than if it is a Gov't PR synonym for "He's lucky we didn't shoot him [or his dog]."
You've got THAT right, FRiend. This was a total set-up designed to provoke a response quite different than the one that transpired. I fully expect to read about an armed "stand-off" or a shoot-out with massed LEOs in the not to distant future. Zer0 needs cover to exploit the CT horror.
since when are search warrants good for the middle of the night? and for a PROBATION CHECK??? something stinks... warrants are generally served between the hours of dawn and dusk not like some NAZI's in the middle of the night
“to” S/B “too”
Yup.
He's got a lot of nerve being the wrong guy that late at night...the nerve!!
Matt,
When I first saw this I immediately thought you were doing another fiction article.
Still watching the CWIIPING list for updates related to the call for more gun control. Thoughts?
Yup! SOP for the dingbats.
I do not believe a probation officer can give his authority to a police officer for a warrantless search of a residence. Probation officers can enter residences without permission for searches, have probationers arrested without warrants, and probationers can be held without bond until arriagned. The probation officer has to be present to do this type of a check. The cops can’t do it because the probation officer called them and asked them to do so. Maybe an attorney can correct me here.
I know a parole agent can authorize the police to search. It’s a condition of parole. Technically parolees are in custody.
Sorry don’t know about probation.
1) A person who doesn’t like the head of the militia is the “informant”.
2) The cops who don’t like the head of the militia made up an “informant”.
A young waiter last night said “All of these things are detractions to make people look the other way.” He goes to Texas A&M so I wasn’t surprised that he was astute.
His clerk wrote the wrong address down on their work order. From the 4920 house number I gave her, it became 4929 on the work order. Well, that wrong property got some Free Plumbing, lol.
Transposing numbers and poor handwriting, is a big problem.
Sounds like a trial run.
If I were the commie in the white house, the first thing I’d do.....
I’d have the feds start “tipping off” local cops to surround militia members in the middle of the night, hoping somebody would panic or think they’re getting robbed thus open fire.
Voila. Militia member shoots police officer. CNN takes it from there.
If challenged, deny everything and announce the police got the wrong house and are sorry.
Great detective work! /s (Clown Posse)
Not to mention county property records and the Census Bureau putting a GPS tag on every property in the country. Given the same 'basic directions' these cops claim they were going by I'll bet any one of us could find the actual address and Mack Page's name in about 20 minutes without even using one of those 'pay to ID' websites. With Google Earth and Zillow we could have sat pics of the house and real estate records with loads of details.
Well atleast they only lit it up with flashlights. They could have lit it up with something else.
On anonymous tips, they can come in like an armed military brigade - over an unsubstaniated ‘parols violation’?
It seems these brigades now pull a full out assualt without first even doing the most curury investigation of the matter -
Truly third world.
What if Mack hadn’t been who he is and had the personal connections he did? And if he hadn’t had the smarts to make the contacts he did?
If he had opened his door and come out as instructed, he could well have ended up with lots of daylight holes in his body because some nervous gendarme with a gun trained on him thought he saw a gun or a suspicious movement? One shot shot have been followed by a volly.
Question: What parole violation, let alone from an anonymous tip, would warrent such a brigade action - and in the middle of the night?
I'd also be suspicious of - and law enforcement should consider - regarding anonymous tips - that the bad guys often make these 'tip calls' in the hopes the good guy that may be a hindrance to his activities - get taken out.
Nailed it! This raid order probably came straight from 0sphincter.
Sounds like cops from everywhere should get help from UPS or Fedex about finding the right address, they can’t seem to get the hang of it...........Repeatedly.
Try them for a crime when they break into the “wrong address” and you’ll see the number of “wrong addresses” go down real quick.
There’s a real possibility that this “incident” was because of his “militia” connection.
That said: Look for more such ‘brigade raids’ -
anyone who has been foolish enough to attach ‘militia’ to their name/group and stockpile assault weapons have moved themselves onto a very special list - TOP for eliminating.
Vying for second place round? Returning vets, Tea Party, preppers.
Anyone who has bought even one assault weapon may well get ‘visited’ in the near future - and will have ALL their weapons confiscated - and if lucky, still have their dog and their own lives.
don't make yourself an easy target.
I’ve served a lot of warrants. It is not uncommon for criminals to give bad addresses. It’s not uncommon for parolees to do the same. I’ve been to many houses serving warrants where the address was bad. It’s not uncommon to go to a house with several police officers if your looking for a real bad guy.
It happens. It’s going to continue to happen. A sheriff came into my house with a warrant for the arrest of a man with the same name as me. (I was a cop at the time) Some guy used my birthday, address and committed some thefts.
He was about to put me in cuffs but had called for assistance from our police dept. An officer from my dept. looked at the warrant and cleared the mess up before I got dragged off to jail. The deputy was a little too eager to arrest me and didn’t check the social security numbers. They didn’t match.
And another thing, not all cops hate militias. Even though I’m a little past the official age, I am the militia.
I stand corrected, I’m not over the official age. Even better.
So, both you & Mr. Page...*knew* someone downtown to *clear up* the mistake. Howzbout those of us who don’t have someone at headquarters to vouch for us?
http://www.constitution.org/mil/me/mil_usme.htm
I clicked around these sites...and it looks like they try to be politically correct....at every step.
I’m more curious about *how* the cops ended up on this wild goose chase.
**troopers were acting on a citizen’s tip about a possible probation violation concerning a person believed to live on that road.**
WTH?
We have become a totalitarian police state.
I still remember Hamlet from my German class:
“Etwas ist faul im Staate Dänemark.”
Supposing other militia members decided to get into the act and anonymously arrange to have a swarm of cops do a midnight raid on a house at one end of town and then they simultaneously cause a big ol’ ruckus at the other end of town.
Separate but related: Some cops are good, some cops are bad, but almost every cop feels like they’re above the law because they are the law. Protect and serve is no longer what they’re about.
quotas, ya know
a “faul” smell indeed...
You could always host a donut and coffee party at your house for the po-leece. Get to know the local crew a bit.
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