“Michael Smith went outside shirtless after being awakened Tuesday morning, yelling at tree removal workers to get off his property,” pressherald.com reports. “The workers thought they saw a gun in his waistband and called police.” As Norridgewock, Maine doesn’t have its own police department, some bright spark called out the Staties – who responded with a SWAT team. Make the jump for a snap of an “assault rifle” wielding cop taking-up position near Mr. Smith’s house, and a money shot quote from the man himself. The po-po didn’t file any charges because “[Maine State Police Trooper Scott] Duff said he doesn’t think Smith went outside with his shirt off deliberately or to make it appear as though he had a gun and scare the workers.” Can you be charged with brandishing a tattoo? The mind boggles.
“’I got plans today. I didn’t want to get shot,’ Smith said shortly after the scene was cleared by police.” [h/t dreamcoach]
If the workers were on his property what right do they have to even call the police to complain?
For all you city dwellers, its called a “right of way” or “easement” that utility companies have along the roads for maintenance. A survey map might not even show it, but its there.
The same people who cry about trees being cut whine even louder when the trees knock their power out in a storm.
Between Right of Way, Easement, Property Taxes, and Eminent Domain, there is no such thing as Private Property. It’s yours until the State changes its mind.
Precisely, the idea of “private property” is a quaint notion. There simply is no such thing, especially now with a technologically empowered rogue govt thats completely out of control.
Google “Andy Johnson wyoming” and see what might happen to your “private property.”
I’m already aware of Andy Johnson’s plight. I know the ATF gets the stink eye the most around here, but my least favorite federal agancy is by far the EPA.
Property tax = rent paid to local government.
It’s funny you say this cause the water company refused to enter my property WITH MY PERMISSION while I was out of town to shut off the water from the main connecting the house to prevent what could have been serious flooding. Fortunately it was just a toilet running endlessly caused by some back pressuring of the system. I think they do whatever they want, whenever they feel like it. When asked to do something by a home owner they make an excuse, when told to do something by the government they can’t wait to trample into your yard, and wreck your garden.
It’s fun to ridicule the government, especially about taxes, but there’s something positive to be said for taxes: paying them proves you have skin in the game.
It’s the people who are net tax takers, not tax payers, who are ruining the country. People who feel as though all of this massive and prosperous country was always like this, always here, and always will be. The entitlement crowd has no connection to the reality of what it takes to build and maintain the country. Even many of those who do pay some net taxes, either on the income or indirectly through their rent, are still disconnected because there’s little transparency. Their property taxes are bundled into their rent, or mortgage, and their income taxes are swept into the U.S. Treasury long before their paycheck is printed or direct deposit funded. So they never see the money or pay it directly.
The rest of us, who do, are far more cognizent of what we’re paying and what the govt does with it.
On the other hand, the branch removal service the local government would contract with in my home town was well known for poaching wood from well inside obvious private property lines. I heard a rumor that they had vastly slowed down their extracurricular activities after one got shot trying to saw a tree in someone’s backyard, but I haven’t lived there for years, and false rumors spread fast in a small town.
Years ago we had 80 acres in the Adirondack mts of NY. We applied to subdivide it and some guys from the NY Adirondack Park Agency came, turned over a clump of dirt with a shovel, said there was “indications of soil stratification” and denied the permit based on “inadequate soil conditions for septic service.” Meanwhile our cedar trees were being relentlessly stolen by a bunch of drunken landscapers who were planting them for their customers at a nice profit. The local PD said “trees dont have fingerprints” when I tried to have them arrested. After being told by the NY Dept of Enviromental Conservation that my permit for opening a hunt club was also denied, we sold the property and moved the hell out of NY never to return. NY is a beautiful state with an extremely ugly govt.
I fully understand easement principles having worked for a cable company for more than 12 years. Where I worked we still had to try and seek permission to enter private property to get to the easement unless it was an emergency, like an outage. I see nothing in the article stating that the workers were doing any sort of easement work. Any work where they would have to be on private property that was planned usually has to have permission from the property owner, even if they were working on the easement property.
Interesting orientation of the pistol tat. Protecting the crown jewels?
appendix carry.
Is this post for real?
It’s called 3 o’clock carry…
Your clock dial must be different than mine. On mine 3 o-clock would be on the right hip.
The cop behind the snow is in a pretty precarious position. One slip and he hits the guy in the tree service bucket.
I’m sure that snow’s going to serve as an effective ballistic shield. Cop needs to study up on the difference between “cover” and “concealment”.
Technical question for all the SWAT operators – how much cover do you need for protection against a Colt 1911 tattoo?
Apparently a small snowbank.
What a bunch of moronic panty-wetting libtards working for the power company. Jeez, go back to CT, NY, MA, or whatever tyrannical craphole you came from, where you’re right at home having your rights trampled on. And while we’re on that topic, do these sheriffs even understand the Constitution? Until Smith was able to pull his “gun” from his holster (fat chance of doing that with a tattoo) there was no threat. Doh!
Maine is an OPEN CARRY state. HELLO! …. and obviously, Smith would never have been able to brandish his weapon.
And what’s with that SWAT douche behind the snow bank? I mean, c’mon ….. really. Guys, get a freakin’ life.
It’s Winter in Maine, and it was probably a slow day.
A kid in school with that tattoo would be arrested, charged as an adult for bearing arms in a GFZ , and if not jailed, would be permanently expelled from school.
Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if the school thugs (administrators) tried to do that.
I think if a child of primary or secondary school age has a tattoo of a handgun on his waistline, school attendance if probably fairly low on his list of priorities.
If the old adage is true “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire”, this is not an “innocent” dude who is unjustly maligned. Decent people of the gun don’t run around with nipple piercings, 3rd Reich tattoos, and a skull tattooo on his left arm. This isn’t your take-home-to-mama type. I would bet he has prior involvement with the local men in blue. Betcha he couldn’t truthfully fill out a 4473 in regards to drug use. Call me a square, but I’m with the tree removal workers on this one.
I know two gun owners just like that actually.
Just because you’re anti government or a body mod enthusiast doesn’t mean you’re a felon or drug user that shouldn’t have guns.
And none of the above means you’re mentally deranged either.
How bout white supremacist? Neo Nazi? KKK member? Still on board with your argument?
Stereotype much?
Hey, go for the whole list, as per DHS via SCLC: “Catholic? Southern Baptist? Military veteran?” It was a tattoo, dammit, it was never “brandished”. The over-the-top militarized SWAT guys are at least arguably a more dangerous manifestation of Nazi type thinking than a couple of tattoos. I’m sorry, but everybody from the local Animal Control to the federal Social Security Admin having a body-armored, “assault rifle” (either real or MSM version)-toting, armored-vehicle equipped “Special Response/Tactical/SWAT/Whatever Team” is starting to get to me.
How does that have any relationship to the issue at hand? Anyway, last time I checked it wasn’t illegal to be a white supremacist or a KKK member, so yes of course they have as much right as any citizen to keep and bear arms.
It’s not stereotyping when you tattoo the message on your body. Do I have to actually say that?
Assholes, dickheads, and douchebags have rights, too.
Vhyrus, you seem to be implying that someone’s opinion should prevent them from owning a firearm.
It’s stereotyping to say ‘this guy has bad tattoos, he must have a criminal record’, as David B. above suggested. For all we know, he’s got offensive personal views but doesn’t even have a parking ticket, let alone felony drug charges.
Vhyrus’s comment wins the day, I do believe.
How about a member of the ADL or NAACP?
@Vhyrus
Even if he has opinions that you don’t approve of or that are almost entirely negative, it does not make him a criminal.
The bar must be held equally without bias, I believe this true for the LGBT community and sadly even some completely hate filled people of any color.
While your stereotype may in fact be accurate, that still doesn’t justify calling the swat team out for a tattoo. Is the tattoo in Bad taste? Yeah, I think so but nonetheless, its that guys body and his right to expression, the workers should grow a pair, I highly doubt he was pointing his tattoo at them in a threatening way, in fact, I doubt his tattoo was in his hand and I’m sure his finger was no where near the trigger.
SWAT thugs will go gang-busters at the slightest provocation. They are bored otherwise. They want nothing more than to bust into someone’s home and start shooting.
The article says that he yelled at the tree trimmers to get off his property. The article doesn’t quote exactly what he said. Given his choice of body decorations (in addition to the gun tattoo), one wonders if his choice of words had anything to do with the nature of the response.
He said “Get off my lawn!”
I’ve been wanting to get that on an AR dust cover for a while. Prolly should get an AR first.
Decent people don’t take employment with the government.
I’ll have to tell this little gem to all my buddies in the Army.
::eye roll::
Oh my god. May your chains rest lightly upon you, and maybe we forget that your were our countryman.
Find another country, will you?
The second Amendment says, “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
NOT: “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed, unless they have nipple piercings, 3rd Reich tattoos, and a skull tattoo on their left arm and you wouldn’t want your daughter dating them.”
Yeppers. Some folks have serious difficulty in discerning the bad guys from the good.
“I may disagree with what you say but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”
NO wouldn’t call you a “square”; BUT IDIOT DOES fit you QUITE WELL.
Some of Mr. Smith’s other tattoos are even more interesting, like the one on the inside of his left arm at the elbow. Where have I seen that insignia/silhouette before?
They look like white supremacist/neonazi tats. I see an iron cross and rendition of the Nazi Adler
Where have I seen that insignia/silhouette before?
On Smith’s GF?
Because freedom of expression and association are really icky, aren’t they?
What was it Jesus said? Oh, yeah: “Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of my brothers, ye did it not unto me.”
or, “As ye do unto the least of my brethren, ye did it unto me.”
That’s called twisting scripture. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the serpent the first to do that?
How is quoting it to be construed as “twisting” it? Only the hearer twists things. If you think that guy is your enemy, you need to take a long look in the mirror.. Until you finally see him.
Some of you guys need to get out more.
This is not a slam or a flame. More like advice.
Is that a Nazi tat on the inside of his arm?
Yep.
It appears to be a Reichsadler or a Parteiadler emblem (hard to say for sure, the difference is the direction the eagle’s head is facing). It also appears to have been fully filled in, although, again, it’s hard to tell from the photo.
If you go to the original web page and click on the photo you can zoom in decently. Looks to me like the circle is not filled in.
Also, the skull tattoo on his lower forearm reminds me of a SS deaths-head emblem.
While I thought it looked a little like a Totenkopf as well, further review reveals its just a shittily tattooed skull. A lot of crappy black only work can easily be done with a homemade tattoo gun and willing human.
How, pray tell, is this relevant? They were called for a GUN TATTOO, not a suspect neo-Nazi tattoo. They are not illegal.
When you muddy the issue, you muddy the concept of Liberty. I may despise the man, but should I not stand up for his rights?
You don’t seriously believe that pablum, do you? You would disagree with somebody, but defend their right to say it or promote it or promulgate it? That’s why our country is in decline today. You would be welcomed by McCarthy’s Hollywood with open arms, comrade.
I see a nazi eagle, I’m sure there’s some white supremacist meaning to the iron cross, and the crossed hammers Pink Floyd invented as a parody/representation of the swastika, which was co-opted by a white supremacist group. So, yeah, guy’s a neo-nazi.
@David B:
Bite me.
That’d indicate ties to the Aryan Brotherhood….. along with some of the other tats as well…
Or, maybe he’s wearing an old school Swasticka-it actually means good luck, before the Nazis ruined it in the PR department.
The problem is a police response to a non-incident, not the homeowners choice of tattoos.
Interestingly, the Nazi tattoo in question doesn’t display a swastika, so my opinion is that it’s not there for good luck.
It’s a picture in a post about a tattoo. I, personally, like to look at the whole picture in addition to the relevant item. That said, I was discussing an observation that I and others had made. I’m not really all that interested in Mr. Smith’s personal views; he has the same right to hold them that anyone else does. I just thought that the choice of tattoos was interesting and, as such, was worth discussing.
So what? Was he breaking the law? Would you say anything if he was an IDF vet?
As a Jew, let me say that if this fellow votes for politicians who support gun rights, he is more my political ally than the 80% of Jews who support gun control and therefore put all of us, Jews included, more at the mercy of the government.
+100,000. The issue is his rights, not his personal beliefs.
OMG! He has a gun, and he is lasering his own package!
Well, it looks like half a gun at least.
That would make it a .22 1/2 caliber?
I believe a combination of the First and Second Amendments, recognizes the individual right to bear arms – on your arms, or belly as the case may be.
On one hand, overreaction to send a swat team because someone saw a gun.
On the other hand, I for one am shocked that a shirtless man had a run-in with the cops. (bad boy, bad boy…)
Am I out of line in feeling, if people can’t tell the difference between a tatoo of a gun and a real gun, maybe it’s not a good idea for them to be out & about without an adult or with someone who acts like an adult?
Excellent point. A nation of grown children is perfect fodder for our totalitarian-leading “betters”.
I don’t get it. He had his “weapon” holstered (as it were) and he never brandished. Wasn’t he simply open carry? 😉
In SC simply “presenting” a firearm is a felony. All it takes is one angry conniving liar willing to swear out a complaint and you WILL be arrested. Which is why concealed carry is the best way to fly under the radar.
I love the South, but I hate South Carolina. Whenever I have to drive through the state, I always stop at the last exit before I enter to fill-up and use the head so I can drive through non-stop.
You’re missing some of the best BBQ in the country.
Other than that, yeah, I was stationed there, can’t say too many other good things about it.
Hey, I think Georgia has some darn good BBQ too. There is a place off of Hwy 129 in Gray, Ga called Old Clinton Barbecue. Their pulled briskett and pork was out of this world. I use to stop there anytime I drove home from college since I would drive right past it.
Does that mean you are filling up in NC? Man, you are paying WAY too much for gas. Highest gasoline taxes in the SE, and not by a small margin. (NC is eighth highest in nation, SC is third lowest).
I’ve seen the difference in NC vs SC gasoline over $.50 / gallon for stations a mile apart.
At least we do have OC, though…give you that. 🙂
If you look for it, and maybe have a bit of luck on your side (or a friend in the know) you can find fantastic BBQ anywhere, honestly. I happen to know of at least one very good place in mid-Michigan.
I just fell in love with the low-country style, with the mustard-based sauce. I’ve come up with some serviceable versions of the sauce at home, but none of them have been quite right.
SC is a quixotic paradox. Lindsey Graham for instance. Talk about conflicted.
For grins google “Rodell Vereen” and get a feel for the SC natives.
I feel exactly the same way.
Presenting is against the law in SC because OC is illegal there. But we’re talking about Maine, not SC.
SWAT is alot less likely to come to kick in your door if nobody, NOBODY, sees your gun. Just saying. Not taking a position either way on OC vs CC. Obviously every states LE, and areas in a state, have different attitudes concerning guns.
Given the location of that tat, I wonder what Smith was actually waving at those tree trimmers.
Somebody should tell him that “getting a little trim” is a figure of speech.
I thought only women get those tucked gun tats lol.
Women and Neo-Nazi poseurs, apparently.
I guess he missed the boat to Ukraine? Those tats would have fit right in on the Maidan.
Do you think you are fooling anyone, you really are delusional.
That snow bank sure is a nice bullet stopper, said no one ever.
Makes me hang my head in shame.
What happened to just knocking on the door, asking a few questions and then leaving?
I met some pretty neat people that way.
If you don’t mind sharing, what department in Oregon (I’m assuming that’s where you worked) did you work for?
Since Tom says that he met some nice people, I’m hoping that he was working Vice.
No shirt while there’s snow on the ground!? No, thank you.
That nipple ring is probably mighty cold.
It’s called “The Full Putin.”
Impulse and anger control issues. Couldn’t wait 30 seconds to throw a coat on. The nature of his tats, all black ink, indicates prison art. If they are prison tats and the subjects that they are we come back to impulse and anger control.
Makes a great storm trooper, lousy neighbor. All guess work on my part.
“Hey everyone, I have a handgun tatt pointed at my privates and Neo-Nazi tatts on my arm because I am just that awesome.”
As Buggs Bunny would say, “What a maroon.”
To put a tat lake that, on your belly is just asking for trouble!
“Can you be charged with brandishing a tattoo?” The anti’s are idiots and desperate, I wouldnt put it past em.
Did this guy model himself after Edward Norton in American History X?
My first thought as well!
Friggin embarrassing. These guys live and work in Maine and they’re shocked by the site of a stinking gun? I wonder what they do during hunting season.
They move back to Massachusetts.
Correction: they’re shocked by the sight of an amateurishly-drawn picture of a gun.
Not sure the cops should have been called over his gun tattoo, but it might be nice to see a Jewish guy clock him in the teeth for those Nazi tats.
He has teeth?
Right, because violence is the correct way to deal with opinions you don’t like. Hypocrite much?
+1000. I’m seeing some new colors displayed here, and not one of them is red, white or blue. Yellow, more like. On the belly.
LOL. Says the guy who uses a fake name to post here.
Thousand-dollar bet? Put your money where your mouth is, white boy. To be judged by the TTAG moderator of your choice?
You’ll renege when you’re wrong, won’t you, white boy?
Billy Burke just jumped the shark.
That has got to be a first. Of course having that Tat without a real one close is next to stupid….
His mother must be so proud.
I am all for rights. At the same time, we don’t need to give fuel to the gun hating crowd.
He gave fuel to the gun hating crowd by not having a gun?
Interesting.
A SWAT team? Pretty soon the police will have jets in addition to SWAT teams and armored cars, and they’ll just call in an air strike on every armed suspect.
Well, I wouldn’t be surprised. When Clinton was in the WH, ATF (yes, them) was asking for O-10 Bronco observation/COIN aircraft. Too much negative publicity put the kibosh to that scheme IIRC. If you want to see what a Bronco can do, watch the movie “BAT21”.
So he should be f##ked with because he has a few tattoos? I’m more offended by the multitude of black folks wearing Odumbo shirts & hats. From an evil white man married to a beautiful black woman.
“The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.” – H.L. Mencken
BOO…
Yes people, that is a Nazi eagle on his left arm. The one below it looks remarkably like an SS Deaths Head.
So what? He is an American and has the rights of free speech and to bear arms.
True. Is their own existence so pure, that they can condemn others for a trifle?
He has the right to arm bears.
That said, funny how someone, who has symbols of a regime that restricted gun ownership to only one group of people (“Aryans” were allowed, everybody else was banned, especially Jews) inked into his skin, starts crying when someone tries to restrict his gun ownership.
He didn’t cry about anything and no one but the usual politicians in DC are trying to restrict his right to own guns.
Try reading the article before commenting.
Based on those other tattoos I wouldn’t be surprised if the local police already knew about this guy. If you’re openly affiliated with really bad folks with a history of violence, then maybe you should expect a little extra back up when the police come a knocking.
I figured that the SWAT response was b/c the utility worker allaged that the guy pointed his gun at him. However, no mention of it in the article. I wonder what the 911 recording has on it. The utility has deep pockets to pay for a few more tats if the worker fabricated info. It may be time to lawyer up. Just saying…
I’d actually be ok with this if the po po shot his nazi tats.
Follow your leader, nazi scum
So, liberty for thee (if you even care about it), but death to everyone you have an objection to? You just made me ashamed to be your countryman.
You actually DESPISE liberty and freedom of expression… unless it’s yours.
I always enjoy reading Burke’s rants. The guy doesn’t even have the cajones to sign his real name to anything he posts around here. Courage there, I tell ya’. LOL. Keep up the pseudo-patriot/tough guy routine. It’s cheap entertainment.
But I will defend to the death your right to be a bluffing moron. Yeah, right. Care to wager a thou on it?
“Cajones” means “large boxes” not “large balls”. The word you are looking for is “cojones”. Just a pet peeve of mine…
The man in the picture above has exactly as much right to those tattoos as I have to call him out on them. Though, I’d like to see more of his sleeve, some might imply a former address at certain government establishments which, like it or not, prohibit one from owning firearms by current law.
Just like the cell phone images that should have been admitted in the Zimmerman trial, these tattoos show the “victim” has certain proclivities which, when demonstrated, require more than the standard response of, “What’s going on here?” The reason for armed response might have had more influence than one random dispatcher, is all I’m trying to say.
Everyone has a right to express whatever they want. Everyone else has a right to express disgust at the previously mentioned expression. Simply getting a tattoo doesn’t pre-empt the right to bear arms, but the right tattoo does self deny the right to bare arms without consequence in certain circumstances. If you want to be treated like everyone else, then keep your totenkopf under wraps, Adolf.
There’s a particular George Carlin quote I’d love to throw out here, but I don’t want to give any anti-gun trolls ammunition.
I’ll throw out a mea culpa: the hammer may be pointing the wrong way to be a hammerskin logo as I thought earlier. It’s probably the crossed sword and hammer, which I don’t know of any particular associations, other than general neo-nazi.
As an aside, I’m with McCain a bit: either you’re using a screenname (which you should), or your parents named you after one of history’s most notorious serial killers. I can name a lot of them, but I can’t think of another than William Burke who managed to get a slang term for a method of execution named after him or herself.
“might imply a former address at certain government establishments which, like it or not, prohibit one from owning firearms by current law.”
Where are the “firearms” in this story? A tattoo is a “firearm”? Just how stupid are you?
And HOW DARE YOU condemn me for what my parents named me? That’s really a no-class thing to do. You should be ashamed of yourself. Should I change my last name also, a-hole?
Look up WILLIAM BURKE, the 17th-century English pamphleteer, who was a kin of EDMUND BURKE, and wrote THE ACCOUNT OF THE EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA.
You want some more? How about YOU take me up on that $1000 bet, also? You think it’s not my real name? Put your money where your accursed mouth is!
“Maine is an open carry state, call us back if he pulls it out”
…is how the phone conversation should have gone.
Check back on him in a couple of years to see if creeping middle age spread turns his Beretta Nano into a Desert Eagle…
I’m just surprised that, if he is a Nazi, he would “Mexican” carry his gun. Just sayin’.
The police were not called out for a tattoo, they were responding to a call about a man with a gun. The people that called the report in were mistaken but this story was blown WAY out of proportion and makes the good folks at ‘thetruthaboutguns’ look like a bunch of raving ranting buffoons. ‘The mind boggles’ as to why you’d try to make a big deal out of this.
A whole SWAT team gets called out on a report of “a man with a gun”, and they are photographed throwing down on an unarmed guy in his own yard, and we are the ones over-reacting?
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