Over the weekend, Track Palin was arrested for the second time in two years on charges of domestic violence. In 2016, Track admitted to hitting his girlfriend with a closed fist, and his mother Sarah Palin said it was all Obama’s fault. At first, we didn’t know the details of Track Palin’s domestic violence arrest, and I honestly assumed that he had assaulted another woman or a girlfriend yet again. As it turns out, the story was a hell of a lot crazier than that.
Sarah Palin’s oldest son allegedly broke into his parents’ house and beat his dad bloody until cops showed up and busted him … TMZ has learned. According to an affidavit by the arresting officer, Sarah called police in Wasilla, Alaska Saturday saying her son, Track, was “freaking out” and on “some type of medication.”
As cops were responding, they got an update that Track had broken through a window at the Palin house and was assaulting his father, Todd. Upon arriving, cops say they found Todd fleeing in a vehicle and bleeding from the face … with Track still inside.
While trying to subdue him, the officer says Track called the cops “peasants” and told them to drop their guns. Eventually, they arrested him and got the full story.
According to Todd, he and Track got into a heated argument earlier in the night about picking up his son’s truck. Todd told Track not to come since he’d been drinking and was on pain meds, but Track came anyway. Todd told cops that he had armed himself with a pistol and was prepared to “protect his family.” That’s when Track busted through the window, disarmed his dad and started pounding on his head … before Todd was able to escape.
As we reported … Track was arrested on 3 separate charges related to domestic violence. It’s the 2nd time in two years he’s been busted for similar cases.
Alcohol and pain meds? Sure, Jan. My initial thought was “isn’t meth a huge thing in Alaska?” but then I thought about the opioid crisis and how people a lot like the Palins are downing hydrocodone pills like Tic Tacs (60 Minutes did a big thing about it on Sunday’s episode too). So what I’m saying is that sure, I’ll believe Track was on “pain meds.” What I question is how he got those pain meds and why he was taking them and why, for the love of God, was he allowed to keep his guns even after his arrest last year? Here’s part of the police affidavit from the LA Times’ FOIA request:
Scary details from the Track Palin domestic violence arrest. Police say he beat up his dad, Todd, and that Sarah Palin called 911. We have the police affidavit. https://t.co/w2Pn9Z9Xic pic.twitter.com/lczdkVuihG
— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) December 18, 2017
And here’s the chaser:
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) December 18, 2017
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Read the arrest documents last night, and I wasn’t surprised. This family was always messy to the nth degree. There’s no way in hell Track should have been driving under the influence. He’s lucky he didn’t kill someone.
And amazingly he was not “accidentally” shot dead by the police.
I noticed that. I wonder why. Hmmm.
@velourazure Exactly, chances are the situation would have had a far bloodier end if Track’s skin was a darker shade.
Exactly. This young man is inebriated, volatile, and enraged enough to break into his parents’ home to beat his father. Going in the police had to assume he was armed since both he and his parents (who’s home he was in) are known gun owners. Then he calls them “peasants” and he demands the officers drop THEIR weapons.
After this aggressive and troubling behavior the police just watch as he climbs around the roof and lays prone so he can spot their locations…. that is clearly his military training kicking in. It gives him the high ground and tactical advantage in a firefight, but the police just let him basically get the jump on them with no shots fired. I’m truly glad no one was shot, but let’s not pretend it would have gone down the same if it didn’t involve Track Palin and all he represents.
THIS. How was it easier/clearer during this encounter to ascertain (as opposed to other incidents) or what determined that this incident – to the law enforcement on the scene – that Track was not a danger to himself/others? What is the standard for enforcement? This shit is insane in the membrane. Not that I want another abuse of power, but give me a break, “y’all.” The Palins, bless their hearts.
When does this become bad parenting and not Obama’s fault?
A black mark on McCain will always be introducing these Wasilla Hillbillies to the national stage.
He’s a product of his dumb, grifting parents. Typical Republicans who shift blame onto everyone else.
@minx –
Exactly!
Track had problems long before he entered the military, which most likely was a deal with a judge. His mother milked it for her own purposes, I suppose the isolation of Alaska makes it easier to be confident that such things won’t be revealed.
His mother is trying to say this is all post-traumatic stress from being in Iraq. I’m sure being tossed into Iraq was not helpful, but he had problems earlier and giving him military training was a huge mistake as we see in this incident. Even just getting drunk on alcohol could explain his behavior, but he is likely mixing it with other drugs.
Other Palin children have had problems with the law or dangerous behavior, but their parents were powerful enough locally to keep a lid on it outside Wasilla. So yes, they have some parenting problems. Mainly neglect and ignorance rather than abuse, I think. But maybe now that he’s attacked his dad, they might realize how serious this is.
I’m so surprised they didn’t shoot him. I bet if he were a person of color the cops would have shot him.
I read the arrest report yesterday and the “peasants” thing made me laugh out loud. This family…Dysfunctional with a capital D, JFC. Dad having to greet his son at the door with a gun pointed at him. And son turning it back on him. Yikes.
As for the “medication,” do opioids really make people violently unhinged like he was? To me it seemed more meth-y in nature.
I’ve taken them after back surgery. Never felt violent, although they can make you really irritable after a few days on them. They make some people hyper and some people groggy. I think the alcohol, or whatever else he’s mixing with the pills, is really dangerous. He has a violent nature that is probably exacerbated by whatever poisons he’s ingesting.
Yeah, more methy. Love how that guy Ken posted that article next to her comments about black protesters
You know it was bad for Sarah to call the cops. Something tells me she’d prefer to keep family drama out of the press. Breaking through a window to attack his father? Yep, meth. That stuff is scary.
The whole “protect his family” thing…Todd, you could have protected your family by raising your kids better.
Seriously.
I’m no fan of tracks parents, but sometimes you can’t blame the parents for how their child ends up. I’ve know people who had wonderful unbringings with kind and supportive parents, and they still turned out awful.
Sometimes you can’t blame the parents & if they were good parents. These two have been horrific parents & purposefully raised privileged, violent children. If Sarah Palin can blame Obama for her son beating his girlfriend, then we can blame her & her husband for raising them.
I’d like to point out that an experienced gun owner with a “pro-gun/more guns protect people” family was easily disarmed by his drunk & drugged assailant of a son
My dad has been on various painkillers for most of my life, and I can attest, they can make a person a rage monster. And fast. Over time, they can also really shorten whatever fuse a person might have had. It’s not fun.
Is this the kid that was in the army? If so, my first thought was some sort of PTSD mixed with medication/alcohol. And also, how on earth did Palin blame Obama originally?
The kid was in the Army as punishment for some crime in lieu of prison. His job was chauffeuring officers around. No combat. No excuses.
IIRC, Palin blamed Obama for his “lack of focus” on veterans’ healthcare. As if she gave a rat’s ass. Lol.
You’re right about his job. The son of a sitting governor, and a dumbass problem child at that, would have spent his time in bubble wrap and never would have left base.
I thought all of the Palins got free healthcare, and other goodies that others are criticized for receiving, due to Todd’s native heritage.
Track had a cushy job in Iraq but that’s no guarantee he wasn’t under stress and at risk of being shot at. But he was definitely a problem before the military experience, and Sarah knows it. She’s just been deflecting.
By most accounts his PTSD is questionable. And his issues started way before he was in the Army. He was in the service because he was given a choice of military or jail for several arrests while he was still in high school.
He messed with the brakes on a bunch of school buses. This kid is messed up in the head.
He drained the coolant from the buses. The blocks cracked in the freezing weather. Thousands of $$$ in repairs/replacements. Jail or the Army. Sarah milked the Army thing for all it was worth-patriotism and all that.
So he’s basically a psychopath. Wonder if hes ever abused animals.
It’s a norm for the family to abuse animals, so that probably wouldn’t stand out.
He messed with the brakes of school busses??? What? And he was given an option NOT to go to jail? He should have been in jail! I HATE HATE HATE this family, ALL of them.
Here is an article about it:
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/track-palin-domestic-violence-arrest-218028
Hmmm, it will be interesting to see how this ends up being Obama’s fault again.
Just when I was starting to forgive John McCain
Whether it’s opioids or meth he’s abusing a substance and needs rehab. It always amuses me when white people interact with the police-no black man would be alive after that interaction and calling the cops ‘peasants’. If anyone wonders if the cops treat people differently-here’s an example.
Didn’t Track have a weapon in his hands the last time the police arrived? Something tells me the Palins have always raised hell in Wasilla and gotten away with it. They even refused to leave the town and live in the Governor’s mansion.
And there’s that brawl a while back where Bristol was beating the shite out of her ex, and at least Track and Todd were involved as well. Something tells me Bristol learned to brawl from her mother. They were at a party and most of the family became involved. These people have klass.
I can’t laugh at this. She was an absolute idiot to bring Obama into the first time (but she is an absolute idiot, so…). I have a family member with a serious drug problem and when they come to the house like that, you have no idea what can happen. Things easily spiral out of control. Definitely sounds like meth to me.
You’re right, it is easy to laugh but I can’t imagine how harrowing it must be to end up in an armed standoff with your own child.
Also having to call the police on their own son, well aware that it’s going to be national news and have serious (legal) consequences for him. It can’t have been an easy decision.
I wonder if some of their younger children were in the house with them?
Marlene makes a good point & I wonder how many times they have NOT called the police on Track. The guy beats people, has a drug problem, has guns & is allowed to keep doing this cuz no one holds him accountable. They are victims of his BUT they are allowing him to run around & victimize others. I am sure he was abusing people while under their care as a minor too. I have no sympathy for them raising this loaded gun, putting bullets in him, using their influence to get him out of trouble, egging him on & then telling society to feel sorry for them. I hope they focus on making the dv charge stuck so he can’t legally have guns anymore & goes into treatment unlike the last time he did this. (please tell me Alaska doesn’t allow dv perps to have guns).
I don’t laugh at the circumstances, but I 1000% laugh at the hypocrisy of that entire family.
Exactly. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, but if Palin had a grain of humility in her body, she’d go away and not criticize others. But she doesn’t, so she won’t.
Me too and I have no sympathy. Not an ounce. My dark side is glad she has problems with her children and happy they are all trashy and public. Racist get nothing, and their suffering is deserved. Her son is a thug, and her husband is not much better.
I loathe that woman as much as I hate 45.
I’m sorry to say, but I blame the parents. Both of her kids (does she have more kids?) Are messed.
Sarah has 5 kids. The oldest two are a mess.
The third child, Willow, is also quite messy. Her parents had to pull strings to keep her out of trouble for her activities. She and Bristol also teamed up online to obnoxiously harass another kid. I think that came out while Bristol was on Dancing With the Stars. (What star, you ask? Who knows, her mom got her the gig.)
I hope that the fourth one is ok, she seemed sweet as a child. Trig is a sweetie as of the last time I paid attention, when Bristol had given birth to a little girl and was all mysterious about the father, her ex-fiancé that I think she later married after a certain amount of a custody battle after the paternity test confirmed he was the father. I think Bristol honestly didn’t know for sure, the timing was such that the baby could have been conceived during a wild trip to Las Vegas or somewhere like that.
The Palin Family would make a good but unbelievable soap opera.
lol she has 5 kids. Willow and Piper are the younger daughters, then Trig is the one with down syndrome.
Trig is most likely Sarah’s grandson actually. She had a mysterious pregnancy not even noticeable to close staff for seven months and then it looked like pillow baby. Bristol had been sent off to live with an aunt. Sarah pretended to have her water break but she didn’t reschedule her speech and then bypassed hospitals in the state she was in and then in Alaska that have good neonatal facilities (she had announced he had Down’s, so people would assume he could have problems during and after birth, but I doubt that they had actually tested Bristol before his real birth) to take a wild ride to a little regional hospital without such facilities. We also were asked to suspend disbelief that any airline would have let her travel under those circumstances. She could have given birth in the aisle…. Then a few days later she showed up for a photo op outside that hospital with the “newborn” who looked rather old to be recently arrived.
My guess is that they had planned for Trig to be adopted to someone else but when he was unexpectedly born with Down’s, that fell through. That’s most likely when pillow baby was revealed for the next couple of months. Also as Sarah and Tod’s child, Trig would have access to the medical care that his other kids have because he is part Native. I don’t think it would be available to grandchildren.
Anyway, Trig seems happy and we can only hope he was with Bristol and her other kids when all this went down.
Sure, Bristol got pregnant with a Downs syndrome child, gave birth , then got pregnant AGAIN 4 weeks later…
Besides the fact that his parents are total duds, I feel like track has some sort of undiagnosed mental issue, plus substance abuse issues.
And Bristol is another story…lots of teens with great parents get pregnant too…I think it has something to do with their religious upbringing
The problem is the bit where she received money for years, for giving sexual abstinence lessons to youths – while repeatedly getting pregnant out of wedlock. It’s the hypocrisy that’s the problem, not the babies.
The problem with Bristol isn’t her repeated “teen pregnancies”. It was the fact that she has a mean streak and isn’t terribly honest. She also gave her fiancé Levi (the guy who came along during the campaign, not the later one; they predictably broke up after the election) such hell when he wanted contact with his son. He had to go to court over it, she really believed she had the right to deny him visitation all by herself. At a later point she moved out of state with the child, making visitation difficult. She also told quite a few obvious lies about him. Levi did some odd things to make money, but considering he was dealing with a Palin – I can see why. They’re expensive to tangle with.
Also her son with Levi has been such a brat. That’s all on his mother, we’ve actually seen how she operates on video. Don’t know if he managed to outgrow the obnoxiousness.
Oh, p.s. So he disarmed his dad? The gun did not save him? Interesting. My husband insists I have a gun, but I have my doubts as to if I would be able to get too or use it in an emergency
He “insists” you have a gun? uhhhhhhhhh yikes.
Bad wording. I had it when we met, he wants me tk keep it
I have long maintained that arming yourself or responding with a gun is likely to make a bad situation even worse (especially in a crowd). I’m just an idiot, according to the right wing gun nuts.
That’s why you need to learn how to use it. A gun is completely useless without lessons and shooting practice. If you have one, for you safety and sanity learn how to use, it or chances are disgustingly good it will be used on you. Find a shooting range today.
Esmom- you follow stats & facts. A gun is your home is more likely to be used against you, no matter how many times you’ve been on a driving range. I am SURE that Todd Palin knows how to use a gun, has shot them many times & his still could have been used to kill him & his wife that night.
MC2- Those stats are misleading. A lot of the deaths are made up of suicides and injuries/deaths by accidents. It’s not that people are breaking into homes and using your gun against you all the time. As Odetta mentions below, Todd may have been reluctant to shoot Track. Had it been a stranger or someone else? Probably would have been a different story.
Bleeding heart liberal here, BTW. I just grew up around guns and see their value. I also believe it should be much harder to get a gun, which would help cut down on accidents
STRIPE- I understand & I think that suicide & accidents should be included. I worked in domestic violence and so I also think about the many times guns in the home are used to stop women from leaving abusive situations, in their abuse & even rape. The gun doesn’t have to be put to the woman’s head- just having it on the table or in the guy’s pants is plenty for it to be “used”. Many men also put the guns to their own head to stop the women from leaving or getting help (Track did in the dv situation with his girlfriend). The presence of a gun in the home does not make us safer, especially women.
Lady D, no thanks. I think private citizens who take lessons on a range, a very controlled environment, still can’t possibly be prepared for a crisis and expect to react flawlessly when panic and adrenaline and uncertainty and fear and panic come into play.
You have a good point Esmom. I guess I was just thinking about myself. My entire childhood was a crisis situation, with torture and daily threats of death. I am constantly prepared against being attacked in my home, or in public, but I realize most don’t live that way. I moved out 40+ years ago and I still stay vigilant.
I have always hated/been afraid of guns but a recent incident has me rethinking having guns in the home. My uncle is a contractor in Saudi Arabia and spends 10 months out of the year overseas. My aunt is home alone which was never a problem until recently. There is some evidence to suggest there is a prowler in their community and more disturbingly, has been focusing on my aunt and uncle’s property. If so he clearly knows she basically lives alone. My uncle now insists my aunt get a gun and takes shooting lessons. The neighborhood is upscale and the chances of someone suspicious creeping around in the daytime is low so a nighttime break-in is our concern. I don’t know…my aunt’s safety is the most important thing.
MC2- I totally agree when it comes to domestic violence. I firmly believe anyone with a domestic violence arrest should not be allowed to own a gun, period.
I guess my point is, it’s not like just owning a gun is the issue. There are a lot of factors that increase your probability of having it used against you. If you have an abusive husband, it’s terrible. If you’re a woman living alone in a house, it may be a good idea to have.
When people quote stats about you being more likely to get hurt with a gun if you own one, you may as well say “you have a better chance of getting bit by a dog if you own one.” “You’re more likely to be in a car accident if you own one.” Of course it’s true. ESPECIALLY if suicides are included (which I don’t think they should be- because that’s a deliberate choice by the owner against his/herself) But there are MANY steps you can take to significantly reduce the danger. Guns aren’t ticking time bombs, ya know? Hope that all made sense.
No one normal feels the need to own a gun. Unless you live alone in the country you do not need a gun. In the city if you have a gun, if it’s properly secured, how would you get to it in time anyway? And if it’s not well-secured…that’s an accident waiting to happen.
But I’m not American so the crazy US gun culture defies my understanding. I don’t ever want to live somewhere that I cannot honk if someone cuts me off for fear they’ve got a gun in their glove box that they’re just itching to use. Enjoy your wild, wild west while the rest of the world weeps over the children shot and killed everyday in America because half your population is too stubborn to enact common sense rules and regulations.
I would imagine his father was reluctant to shoot his own son and thats why track disarmed him
Agreed. If it were a stranger he may not have hesitated long enough for Track to get close to him.
I don’t get the arming yourself stuff. Unless you sleep with it under your pillow, which IMO is a very bad idea, its probably locked away and by the time you go and get it chances are if bad sh*t is going to happen it already happened. I told my boyfriend if he went and got a handgun, (he has one for hunting which I’m ok with), that I would dump him b/c while I don’t think he would EVER use it against me, I know he would do something stupid if someone broke into his car or apartment and he would end up in jail in a fit of rage. 🙁
Well, I hope he gets whatever help he needs, whether it’s rehab or medication for mental illness.
Since they came on the scene, this whole family has acted like their s— didn’t stink. I think that’s what bothered me most. Judging everyone else, wanting to legislate everyone else, when they are messier than everyone else.
To think this family could have been a heartbeat away from the presidency. A heartbeat away … think about it. Think about this family living in the White House in Washington, DC representing us to the rest of the world.
The Trump family is bad, but at least we don’t have Don, Jr. punching his father in the face and Trump pointing a gun at his own son with Ivanka knocked up and wondering who the father is.
No, just Senior punching Junior in the face.
45 is a physically violent sadistic person, and there was a time when Junior was a sympathetic figure. No one is exempt from his brutality.
One thing no one is mentioning: where was Baby Trig? Sarah told the cops the house was empty, so, either her youngest child with Down’s Syndrome was elsewhere (where would he be away from his mother?), or she left him inside. Alone. With a tweaked-out sibling roaming loose. WTF
Trig is nine years old. He spends a lot of time with Bristol and her kid Tripp, who is close to him in age.
Bristol moved to Texas with her husband and kids back in the spring.
Maybe Willow had him? Both girls spent more time with him than his mother.
She is a liar. Who knows what is going on but the gossip in Alaska is eyebrow-raising. I don’t pay attention to them, but I remember someone saying if the truth ever came out about them it would be a scandal. If I could recall the details, I would share, but I seriously don’t care about them so I anything trashy or nasty would not have surprised me enough to retain it. Hmmm makes me try to think though.
Perhaps someone else knows their story.
Trig might have been gradually shifted over to Bristol, who most likely is his birth mother, once Sarah didn’t need him as a political prop. Maybe he went with them to Texas? He really was with Bristol and her kids a lot before, and when he was a baby during the campaign Bristol seemed to be his primary caregiver.
Was Track allowed to keep his guns? This story doesn’t mention Track being armed. The father, Todd, was armed and the son disarmed him, but it doesn’t sound like Track had his own gun(s) with him.
I thought the headline originally said “pheasants” but I dunno, it made sense to me for some reason. No idea if there are pheasants in Alaska but it seemed to make sense as an Alaskan insult.
Kind of random but I remember Sarah Palin having a lot of children and a quick Wikipedia search reveals she still has two minor children, including her son Trig (he’s 10) who has Down’s Syndrome. Where were they that late? Do they not live at home? I mean it’s possible both weren’t home that night but it just seemed strange.
If Trig is 10 then the next minor child must be close to18 by now.
“On medication”, I think they mean “high on drugs”. Yeah, wonder why “comply or die” doesn’t apply to him.
And like clockwork we have people trying to diagnose him as possibly having mental illness, must be nice to always be excused in life where others get condemned as thugs or terrorists. Yeah, maybe he is ill with affluenza.
Because of the domestic violence charges, does that mean that he is now prohibited from owning fire arms?
Unless I am reading wrong, Todd had a gun loaded to protect his family…..and was disarmed by his intruder. Hello NRA, Happy Holidays from your poster family.
you don’t think he hesitated because it was his own son?
Is he Todd’s son? Some believe his father is Sarah’s high school infatuation, Curtis Menard.
Todd Palin fled the scene without Sarah and the rest of the clan??? Wasilla family values, folks.
I didn’t even think of that lol. Way to go patriarch!
Why do I picture Sarah taking the gun from son and pouring him captain crunch, you rascal.
It’s possible Tod thought Track’s rage was directed only at him, so getting out of there might descalate the situation.
As someone who had a son grow up to have alcohol and other problems, I really hate to read when the parents are automatically blamed. It feels awful enough when this happens without fingers being pointed at you. It seems like we should put politics aside on this one and hope he is being kept away from others and the potential to hurt them.
I also have a brother in law with PTSD from serving in the military. Palin was in the military, wonder if any of this can be traced to that?
Sad story, IMO…no matter where your politics lie.
They claim he has PTSD but he never even saw combat
I am sorry Megan, and I don’t think the parents are to blame automatically, and in most cases, I think parents do the best they can. I have too many children not to think there won’t be some bumps in the road.
It isn’t politics for me with her. It is her and how she behaved toward others and how sanctimonious she is and how much she lies about their home life.
Is he Todd’s son? Some believe his father is Sarah’s high school infatuation, Curtis Menard.
Shortly before marrying Todd, Sarah had a thing with college basketball star Glenn Rice.
Just a note–I’m no fan of Track or any of the Palin’s, but during his tour of Iraq his “chauffeuring officers around” was driving them and their Personal Security Details outside the wire in up armoured vehicles. It wasn’t the cushy set up people keep repeating.
For that matter, inside the wire people get PTSD, too
Mortar fire, random non-directional small arms fire, plenty of hazards.
No one went to Iraq and lived in a bed of safety their entire tour.
Oh, my dad did that job and it’s chauffeuring. Come on.
Then your dad lied to you (if you’re talking about Iraq.)
I was there.
I’m sure opiods, alcohol, meth, whatever-the-hell he’s on don’t help matters, but seriously, it’s not an excuse. I’ve lived, I’ve done my share of partying (not meth, we’re talking margaritas) and never, EVER, would I have behaved like that. I think the worst I’ve ever done to my parents is hang up on them (haven’t we all? Or is that just me? LOL) in my experience, people who act like that are not decent people who happen to have gotten intoxicated. I could be wrong, and this is just MY experience with people, but I remember my ex who had a problem with drinking and drugs. I demanded he stop, and he did. Turned out he was just as abusive, if not actually more, sober. Sucks to be y’all, Sarah & Todd, you should have spent less time gun shopping and judging others and more time parenting imho
This was just such an awful thing, beating up his father like that. The father was in that horrible snowmobile accident that almost killed him not all that long ago.
Whether it is PTSD or drug problems or mental illness, this young man needs immediate help. Which I suppose he could end up getting courtesy of the State of Alaska while locked up somewhere.
This is what happens when the only anti-drug message you give your children is a religious one. You need to explain to them how it affects other *people*, not just how it affects your god. Because if your children end up rejecting your faith, then you haven’t given them any drug education at all.
How long until Palin is trying to hush this up and going back to giving expensive speeches about how guns protect the home and family?
That whole family is on drugs……And they always have been.