Mark Koernke, a member of the Michigan militia, has been in prison for two years after leading police on a high-speed chase. While he’s been out of circulation, someone has been running an unlicensed microradio station from his home in the village of Dexter. The station can apparently only be heard for a couple of miles and mostly runs information sympathetic to the militia.
It’s an undisputed fact that people involved with militias love weaponry. So, when federal marshals went to raid the station on Wednesday, they should not have been shocked to find a shitload of it on the Koernke property.
Seeing the stuff apparently sent the FCC men and their badge-carrying chaperones into some sort of fit, as they called in the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms and any other police they could find in the surrounding several square miles.
All those flashing lights and badges predictably drew the attention of a local television station who wasted no time mixing footage of homemade signs advertising the station’s frequency with serious-looking cop shots about all the “long guns” and ammo found on the property.
“All pirates are dangerous – look how they’re armed to the teeth!” FCC field agents now train at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center mostly because of this guy and his friends, who are definitely the exception, not the rule.
This week the FCC also successfully convicted an Orlando, FL man on seven criminal counts of unlicensed broadcasting; his sentencing will take place in February. The Enforcement Action Database will be updated with the relevant info shortly.
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