Last updated on 2020-10-29
Some hothead from Maine got arrested for “criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon disorderly conduct” today in Bangor for brandishing a wooden baton and a large knife at Kristi Noem’s rally for Trump today.
Police said at some point, [Peter] Beitzell moved toward the crowd while brandishing a wooden baton and a large fixed-blade knife.
Security officers ordered Beitzell to put the weapons away, but he initially ignored them, police said.
At one point, Beitzell allegedly turned and began walking toward one of the security officers while still holding the weapons.
Eventually, Beitzell returned to his vehicle and put his weapons away. Police said they took him into custody when they arrived at the scene [“Man Arrested at Maine Trump Rally Featuring South Dakota Governor,” AP via WMTW-TV, 2020.10.28].
Go ahead and yell at Trumpists, but hey, dummy! Do not do so while waving a club and a knife! The only things you should have in your hands at a Trump rally are a good protest sign and, better yet, your phone, so you can record and tweet whatever happens.
A good phone video would help us check the details of the story, which the hothead tells a little differently even as he admits he screwed up:
Beitzell, who said he doesn’t like Trump, said things went sideways after he flipped off the Trump bus from a distance of about 50 yards (45 meters).
He said he displayed the weapons because he felt threatened by three men who approached him. One turned out to be a South Dakota police officer, but the man refused requests to show a badge, he said.
“Yes, I was an idiot,” Beitzell said. “I was a dummy who pulled a weapon, but there were three of them marching over toward me,” he added [“Man Arrested at Trump Rally with South Dakota’s Noem,” AP via ABC News, 2020.10.28].
Wait—a South Dakota police officer? In Bangor, Maine? What the…
Noem was part of a Trump campaign tour with stops planned in Maine and New Hampshire. She was traveling with a security detail from the South Dakota Highway Patrol [AP via ABC, 2020.10.28].
Governor Kristi Noem is not only absent from her elected duties this week, but she’s also hauling two South Dakota Highway Patrol officers around the country with her?
SDCL 32-2-12 entrusts the Division of Highway Patrol with “the enforcement of all laws, police regulations, and rules governing the operation of motor vehicles and motor carriers.” SDCL 32-2-7 authorizes to enforce “all laws, police regulations, and rules governing motor vehicles and motor carriers over and upon the highways of this state.” SDCL 32-3-8 directs agents of the Highway Patrol to arrest violators of those motor vehicle and motor carrier laws. SDCL 32-2-9 gives HP officers “the same powers with respect to the enforcement of law as sheriffs, constables, and police officers” and says HP officers “shall prevent and detect crime, apprehend criminals, enforce the criminal and traffic laws of the state, and perform such other related duties as may be legally imposed upon them.”
So tonight’s big questions:
- Can the Governor of South Dakota legally impose on officers of the South Dakota Highway Patrol a duty to travel with her to other states and serve as her personal bodyguards at political campaign rallies?
- Can our tax dollars pay for personal security of the Governor at out-of-state political events?
Perhaps relevant to answering is another frequently cited statute relating to South Daktoa campaign finance, SDCL 12-27-20, the prohibition on using public dollars to influence elections:
The state, an agency of the state, and the governing body of any county, municipality, or other political subdivision of the state may not expend or permit the expenditure of public funds for the purpose of influencing the nomination or election of any candidate, or for the petitioning of a ballot question on the ballot or the adoption or defeat of any ballot question. This section may not be construed to limit the freedom of speech of any officer or employee of the state or any political subdivision who is speaking in the officer’s or employee’s personal capacity. This section does not prohibit the state, its agencies, or the governing body of any political subdivision of the state from presenting factual information solely for the purpose of educating the voters on a ballot question [SDCL 12-27-20].
The officers themselves are not being paid to speak and directly influence the election. But they are providing the bodyguard services that our fraidy-cat Governor apparently feels she must have to step out in public in other states to make her campaign speeches. Those agents are playing a key role in the Governor’s effort to influence the election of a candidate.
Maybe that’s why, if Beitzell’s account is to be believed, one of the men who turned out to be SDHP refused to show his badge. Maybe the two HP officers (and KNBN has photos of the two South Dakota oficers snoopervising as the local uniformed police cuff Beitzell) are off duty, taking vacation time, and working as private security on Noem’s campaign dime and thus must absolutely avoid identifying themselves in any way as South Dakota police officers.
But the Department of Public Safety is recognizing Noem’s guards as on duty HP:
“Two South Dakota Highway Patrol troopers, who were serving as the Governor’s security detail on Wednesday encountered a man brandishing a weapon in an area where the Governor and others were located. The man was arrested by local authorities,” Department of Public Safety spokesman Tony Mangan said in a statement [Todd Epp, “Noem’s Security Detail Stops Assailant with Weapons at Trump Campaign Event in Maine,” KELO-FM, 2020.10.28].
So apparently the most important thing for two on-duty South Dakota Highway Patrol officers to be doing on our dime this week is not patrolling South Dakota’s highways, enforcing South Dakota’s laws, and helping South Dakotans in distress but providing “security” for one woman as she ignores her paying job and plays Presidential politics far from South Dakota.
Related Surveillance of State Resources: News Center Maine publishes this photo of Beitzell’s arrest. The Pierre Capital Journal says the two men in plain clothes on the edg
es of the photo are our South Dakota Highway Patrol officers, out enjoying their fall getaway with Covid Kristi.
grudznick loves your baudy blog headlines, Mr. H!
Hopefully the Argus and KELO will pick up on this shameful (and shameless) waste of taxpayer dollars. The giant oaf on the right in the bottom pic looks like he’s primed to kick some liberal butt. Personally speaking, I would’ve walked the other way, fast, not pulled a weapon.
Yet, white scumacysts are welcomed with all their guns at most GOP campaign and government events and locations, except when trembling Cadet Bone Spurs is present. 🤔🤔🤔
GNOem is like Nikki Haley, can’t keep their mitts off their police details. What will Lew say? These trumpian republican governors are kinda skanky gals. Maybe they should stay home with their hubbies. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7765084/South-Carolina-governor-hopeful-Nikki-Haley-hit-by-affair-claims.html
I would hope that Colonel Miller (SDHP top cop) has made it clear to these fellers that they have no arrest powers in states other than South Dakota. That they are acting as her security in another state(s) while she is not conducting South Dakota business? yeah, they better be on their personal time and being compensated by dollars other than South Dakota taxpayer dollars.
But Mr Beitzell must have had a reason to ask them to show their badge — sounds like Noem’s goombas must have id’s themselves as police officers. tsk tsk tsk. Can’t do that in Maine, South Dakota Highway Patrol. Ooopsy doodles.
Mr Beitzell was being a dummy, but can you imagine if he had physically resisted with these SDHP folks and they had to go hands on with him? What a mess.
(I try not to comment on physical appearance of folks, but I wish Ms Noem would stop leaving her pants in the dryer so long……is that what she means by positive pants?)
Come come, now, Mr. Dana. The pants on Governor Noem and Mr. Beitzell are each fine and dandy, as Mr. Nesiba could attest. Let us not begrudge another their own pants, be they short or long variety.
Well Ms Grudz, I wasn’t referring to the length of Ms Noem’s pants at all. Maybe if she purchased pants that were the right size or didn’t leave them in the dryer so long, she wouldn’t have to pour herself into them.
never referred to Mr Beitzell’s pants
Mr. P, I can sense your jealousy of how the pants of other people fit. I do not refer to Mr. Beitzell, of course, who should have been beaten soundly about the head and shoulders like the criminal he is.
Would you show us a picture of your pants?
Lucky the guy was white. Had he been a man of color his color may have been left on the ground, drained from 7 bullet holes in the back.
Excellent questions, Corey. With Craig Price, Secretary of the South Dakota Department of Public Safety, formerly Superintendent of the South Dakota Highway Patrol, is it surprising how the die is cast? Qualifications are one thing, while inbreeding, loyalties, and behind-the-scenes machinations are another.
That is true, jerry. A black guy would have been shot dead and probably his family would have been detained and questioned for hours also.
Why is Kristi using tax payer money having HP as her security guards? Hello, legislature? Campaigning for Trump has nothing to do with SD.
Kristi needs to hire her own private security and quit wasting SD resources, even if she is not using taxpayer money.
The absence of loud noises in the story assures readers the perp was a wasicu.(see Jerry’s comment) Maybe he was attempting a citizen’s arrest on the law breaking Noem Nothing.
Will sweet little Ian Fury be given a sanction to browbeat those nasty Maine TV stations and newspapers for their reporting and photos, just like he does here in smalltown Soo Falls?
Dana, I used to have a co-worker, male, who, upon seeing a co-worker, female, who was absolutely poured into her clothes, would remark, “Well, now I know exactly what it looks like, except for the color.” There was also an old Playboy joke (Unlike everyone else, I would read it for the photos and the jokes, not the articles) which went like this:
A guy at a party sees a gal in skin-tight pants, sits beside her and asks “How in the world do you get into those pants?” Gal answers, “Well, you start by buying me a couple drinks.”
(If this comment is too racy for here and you want to remove it, I’m certainly fine with that, CH)
Am I mistaken in remembering that the noem/trump campaigns have yet to reimburse Sioux Falls for the expenses incurred during orangeman’s lightning fund raising visit two years ago ??
I see two SDHP troopers are in civis, and have Trump Jackets on, so is there any question they are on personal leave? And being paid by tRump campaign?? Certainly wouldn’t think there is any doubt?????
@:Dc @ CAH
The two chumps in the Trump jackets alongside Noem in that pic with the microphone are Lewandowski, (on her right side) and Tommy Hicks (on her left side), not the two SDHP.
watch video:
https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/politics/elections/trump-tour-rolls-through-maine-campaign-says-state-is-absolutely-in-play-for-a-trump-victory/97-e9dfde3e-a368-4eec-8e48-15c881d72a53
RIght, Chris: the guys by the bus are rally speakers. The photo from News Center Main shows the two SDHP officers standing near the arresting officers and the suspect.
A citizen’s arrest? Hey, we don’t have recall power; maybe a citizen’s arrest is a project we could get a Cowboy-Indian Alliance to work on. Where’s Russell Means when we need him?
Bulima Pants. Goes well with her $1000 blazers topped off with her dogwhistle camo tactical caps with “no masks for SD” or some other Bullsheit liberty or death militia slogan she wears.
She wouldn’t know law and order if she held some high Republican office!
Great takedown Cory.
When Geo Floyd’s funeral was held, in Houston perhaps, a half dozen DHS Border Patrol snipers were authorized to use lethal force from surrounding rooftops. DHS has “acting” leadership as unqualified incompetent LEO trumpists “acting as deputy secretary” sending camo wearing full tactical outfitted urban soldiers into battle to “save” Portland’s federal courthouse. Trump corrupted an entire agency (like Kristi has SDHP) in rehearsals for the big show on Inauguration Day.
Suppose our Indian neighbor elders, children, brothers and sisters standing up for their clean drinking water and sacred burials at Cannonball had military gunsights centered on their foreheads?
Do you suppose heavily armed para military militias appearing in public gatherings are similarly targeted, awaiting the execute order should things go awry like white supremacist muscle car drivers slamming into crowds of BLM or other legitimate protestors? AND how long did the Breanna Taylor investigation take? Flawed no-knock warrant from the initiation of the flawed LEO operation. Killed in her own bed by 32 LEO bullets.
“Jews shall not replace us” is the code chant protecting a gathering, apparently in Republican AG William Barr’s world, and likely in Republican AG Jason’s similar little red neck state of SD. I am ashamed of living here.
Under Republican dictatorship, the people’s purse is wide open for whatever is desired to enrich themselves. What will Trump do once the federal tap is shut off on his properties. And what about Kristi’s supply of federal dollars that only she knows how to handle? The Republican dictatorship has been a very expensive experiment for the taxpayers but if we manage to hang on to our voting rights by the skin of our teeth, it might not be too late.
Let none of you ever again criticize grudznick for making comments about anybody’s appearance.
You have forfeited that ability without immediately losing your debates with grudznick.
I have ruled.
As this rank misogynistic pervert today loved the headline mentioning Kristi’s body.
Double Shakedpeared dullard doth protest too and hoisted on hisown petard.
Fashion 2nd amend bullsheit tach gear w/YOUR wardrobe while making public statements and see where it gets you. You have no courage. She is too dumb to duck.
10 minutes out of the gate, you. Dull as they come.
I have no petard. Those are those one-piece skin-tight spandex things that dancers and grapplers wear to show off all the naughty bits, right?
Vanity Fair etc journalist:
@JeffSharlet
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11h
First the black, white & blue anti-Black Lives Matter flag flew outside of Trump rallies, then on stage, next to the US flag; in Wisconsin last week it replaced the US flag behind Trump; now the American flag, with all its complications, is just gone, & a fascist banner waves.
See photo of new fascist American LEO flag. Noem’s tactical camo cap often has the black colored “american” flag patched on with velcro. That maybe what you mean?
https://mobile.twitter.com/JeffSharlet/with_replies
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ElgobMRVMAEhLU2?format=jpg&name=medium
Trump the fascist training our not-too-smart governor.