The Clarion-Ledger‘s Chris Joyner, staying on this gunz-on-planez story, today hints that Mike Vick — caught mimicking Frank Melton’s unnecessarily-armed-on-an-airliner adventure — has paid for it not just with embarrassment but his job.
You’ll recall that Vick, now-former director of the Law Enforcement Liaison Office of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, tripped the Transportation Security Administration’s wire, apparently sometime this spring, by trying to carry a gun onto a return flight to Jackson from Portland, Oregon. That he’d slid right onto an outbound flight from Jackson-Evers has Rep. Bennie Thompson demanding an explanation from TSA.
Today Joyner updates us:
A former state employee exceeded his authority when he wrote his own authorization letter so he could fly armed on a flight out of Jackson, Department of Public Safety Commissioner Steve Simpson said. …
Simpson said Monday that Vick was not acting as a law enforcement officer at the time. Vick could not be reached for comment. …
“The Law Enforcement Liaison Office,” continues the story,
provides training for local law enforcement around the state but is not a law enforcement agency. The office is funded through a grant administered by the University of Southern Mississippi, making Vick a USM employee.
USM spokeswoman Jana Bryant said Vick’s employment with the university ended May 31. She would not comment on the circumstances surrounding Vick’s trip to Portland or why he is no longer employed.
Maybe Bryant won’t, but Joyner can tell you that Steve Simpson ain’t happy:
Simpson said Vick and several employees in the Law Enforcement Liaison Office attended a training seminar in Portland.
“Why do you have to fly armed for that?” Simpson asked. …
Simpson, a former circuit judge, said his policy is that TSA regulations be followed to the letter, especially when it comes to guns being taken onto a plane.
“I can’t imagine a place where the rules would be less flexible than that,” he said.
Nor is his other boss much more supportive of Vick’s Boss Hogg act:
Vick also is a commissioned reserve deputy in the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department. But Sheriff Malcolm McMillin said Vick was not acting in the capacity as a sheriff’s deputy at the time he took that fight.
“(Undersheriff) Bill Gowan and I would be the only ones with the authority to issue that order,” McMillin said. “I’ve been in law enforcement for 36 years, and I’ve never flown armed.”
Interestingly, along with a huffy comment-thread, the story features a photo of not Mike Vick’s ya-got-me expression but Frank Melton’s.
