Post by Origanalist on Oct 28, 2014 22:35:54 GMT -8
Want to Play Cop? This Town Will Sell You a Badge and a Gun Permit
Doctors, lawyers—even a couple of NFL players—who don't live anywhere near Oakley, Michigan, are reserve police officers there
Author: M.L. Nestel Posted: 10/23/14
The village of Oakley is a tiny speck on a map of Michigan: It has one streetlight, one grain elevator, one church and a couple of bars. If one of its 300 residents gets as much as a DUI, it’s big news around town.
So it makes sense that Oakley relied on a single policeman for decades to protect and serve. He was more than capable of making the town’s half-dozen or so arrests for petty crimes every year all by himself. But in 2008, a new chief arrived in town (the old one had to step down after he was caught stalking a teenage girl), and he began staffing up.
The new chief, Robert Reznick, promptly added 12 full-time police officers, but he didn’t stop there. He also started hiring volunteer cops in droves, many of them friends of his. And it wasn’t just guys from the neighborhood, either. Among Oakley’s volunteer cops are lawyers and doctors—even a couple of NFL players—who don’t even live in town.
Robert J. Reznick, who runs the Oakley Police Department in Oakley, Michigan.
VILLAGE OF OAKLEY
Here’s how the chief’s program works: The wanna-be officers pay about about $1,200 for a uniform, bullet-proof vest and gun, and some make additional donations to the police department. In return, they get a police badge and the right to carry their gun almost anywhere in the state, including places that people with normal gun permits can’t, like casinos, bars, stadiums and daycare centers.
There are many towns in the country where you can pay to play cop, but they’re particularly common in Michigan. In dozens of other cities and towns in the state, people who donate to a local political campaign get to appear in public wearing police uniforms and pack heat at Detroit Lions or Tigers games.
“There’s no way to put a number of these people, which is part of the larger problem,” says David LaMontaine, a deputy sheriff in Monroe County and president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Michigan.
Reznick, who lives 25 minutes away and is also the police chief in nearby Waterloo Township, says his reservist program has raised lots of money for Oakley and made it possible to run the police department that he himself supersized. “I bring in thousands and thousands of dollars,” Reznick says. “Without the money from the police department, that town would not be running.”
One of Oakley’s reservists, sources tell Vocativ, is Michael S. Kent, a familiar face on infomercials for inventing the Lifestyle Lift, which promises cheaper and less invasive face-lifts. The company was at one point under investigation by the attorney general’s office in both New York and Florida for dozens of complaints by customers who say the surgery didn’t work. A lawyer for Kent, who has a vacation home in Michigan, declined to comment about the doctor’s Oakley ties.
Plastic surgeon celebrity Michael Kent is one of the reserve police officers in Oakley, Michigan.
LIFESTYLE LIFT
Another guy who bought himself a badge and gun from Reznick is a white-shoe lawyer named Herschel Fink, who serves as the editorial counsel for The Detroit Free Press. Calls made to Fink’s office weren’t returned.
One of the two NFL players who have been able to pack heat with a concealed-pistol license is Jason Fox, an offensive guard who played for the Detroit Lions before being traded to the Miami Dolphins. It’s unclear if Fox forfeited his badge and gun privileges when he relocated to Miami.
story continues....www.vocativ.com/usa/guns/oakley-michigan/?page=all&PageSpeed=noscript
Doctors, lawyers—even a couple of NFL players—who don't live anywhere near Oakley, Michigan, are reserve police officers there
Author: M.L. Nestel Posted: 10/23/14
The village of Oakley is a tiny speck on a map of Michigan: It has one streetlight, one grain elevator, one church and a couple of bars. If one of its 300 residents gets as much as a DUI, it’s big news around town.
So it makes sense that Oakley relied on a single policeman for decades to protect and serve. He was more than capable of making the town’s half-dozen or so arrests for petty crimes every year all by himself. But in 2008, a new chief arrived in town (the old one had to step down after he was caught stalking a teenage girl), and he began staffing up.
The new chief, Robert Reznick, promptly added 12 full-time police officers, but he didn’t stop there. He also started hiring volunteer cops in droves, many of them friends of his. And it wasn’t just guys from the neighborhood, either. Among Oakley’s volunteer cops are lawyers and doctors—even a couple of NFL players—who don’t even live in town.
Robert J. Reznick, who runs the Oakley Police Department in Oakley, Michigan.
VILLAGE OF OAKLEY
Here’s how the chief’s program works: The wanna-be officers pay about about $1,200 for a uniform, bullet-proof vest and gun, and some make additional donations to the police department. In return, they get a police badge and the right to carry their gun almost anywhere in the state, including places that people with normal gun permits can’t, like casinos, bars, stadiums and daycare centers.
There are many towns in the country where you can pay to play cop, but they’re particularly common in Michigan. In dozens of other cities and towns in the state, people who donate to a local political campaign get to appear in public wearing police uniforms and pack heat at Detroit Lions or Tigers games.
“There’s no way to put a number of these people, which is part of the larger problem,” says David LaMontaine, a deputy sheriff in Monroe County and president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Michigan.
Reznick, who lives 25 minutes away and is also the police chief in nearby Waterloo Township, says his reservist program has raised lots of money for Oakley and made it possible to run the police department that he himself supersized. “I bring in thousands and thousands of dollars,” Reznick says. “Without the money from the police department, that town would not be running.”
One of Oakley’s reservists, sources tell Vocativ, is Michael S. Kent, a familiar face on infomercials for inventing the Lifestyle Lift, which promises cheaper and less invasive face-lifts. The company was at one point under investigation by the attorney general’s office in both New York and Florida for dozens of complaints by customers who say the surgery didn’t work. A lawyer for Kent, who has a vacation home in Michigan, declined to comment about the doctor’s Oakley ties.
Plastic surgeon celebrity Michael Kent is one of the reserve police officers in Oakley, Michigan.
LIFESTYLE LIFT
Another guy who bought himself a badge and gun from Reznick is a white-shoe lawyer named Herschel Fink, who serves as the editorial counsel for The Detroit Free Press. Calls made to Fink’s office weren’t returned.
One of the two NFL players who have been able to pack heat with a concealed-pistol license is Jason Fox, an offensive guard who played for the Detroit Lions before being traded to the Miami Dolphins. It’s unclear if Fox forfeited his badge and gun privileges when he relocated to Miami.
story continues....www.vocativ.com/usa/guns/oakley-michigan/?page=all&PageSpeed=noscript