Alaska editor handcuffed for asking questions

Tony Hopfinger, the editor of the Alaska Dispatch, was handcuffed by private security guards hired by Republican candidate Joe Miller after asking questions of the politician following a town hall meeting.

Hopfinger remained handcuffed until police arrived and demanded he be released, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

“While I’ve gotten used to the blog Alaska Dispatch‘s assault on me and my family, I never thought that it would lead to a physical assault,” said Miller in a statement, Editor and Publisher reports. “It’s too bad that this blogger would take advantage of a ‘Town Hall’ meeting to create a publicity stunt just two weeks before the election.”

The security firm claims Hopfinger was trespassing and shoved someone. Hopfinger says he was encircled by Miller’s guards and supporters, and felt threatened.

E and P reports that the editor was “trying to question Miller about his time working as an attorney at the Fairbanks North Star Borough, which had recently been in the news after a former borough mayor alleged that Miller had used the borough computer for partisan political activities.”