Outstanding posts! Both with information that hasn't been in any of the news stories I've followed! I can't find a news that shows that they interviewed a neighbor during the event.

In direct response to Drue: You asked if the police were acting as professionals in this. Absolutely. Let's break the analysis into two portions, the event and the follow-up.

In the first part, the danger presented to police dispatch upon hearing an armed threat (no matter by who or against who) triggers a decision to deploy a tactical team. In Savage, this is a regional team that trains on using various weapons and specific tactics until their use is as automatic as the departments can afford. (In a world without regard to budgets, every tactical team would have dedicated members.) The tactical team's first action in getting to the scene is to secure the perimiter and determine how and if they can move in. In this case, it seems they entered and handcuffed the threat and made sure all parties were safe. Once everyone is safe, the story can be sorted out and everyone released. I'd be curious about how politely they entered. In a tactical entry, things generally get pretty violent, including door and window destruction, use of flash-bangs, and some impressive weapons. If they knocked, talked (more than yelling "police"), or disjoint a bone, this civilian is fairly lucky.

On the second part, everyone here appears to be asking for an apology. I feel for the officers, because they can't apologize if they wanted to under threat of a lawsuit. Ask your insurance provider how apologizing after a car accident would impact the settlement and you'll have a much better understanding of why the department has to pull together and let the administrators do the communication.

Once again, everybody should note that I'm just a fan of police, and I've gotten my information from the Savage Pacer, Shakopee News, and Prior Lake American papers. No links to the department here, so I'm useless under supeana. :)

Now on to dear, sweet Mary. Your sarcasm shows fear, Mary. I respect your right to have your husband home when repairmen visit. My point is that should a housewife call saying that she is threatened by a repairperson with a gun, she will see pretty much the same response. However, if you enjoy turning the situation around, what should the reaction have been if the DirecTV installer was a woman?

The "Ma Barker" comment is an interesting analogy, as "Ma Barker" was never thought by officials to be a criminal. Instead, historians believe that she knew her sons were criminals, but didn't participate in or help plan any crimes. Instead, she was an innocent civilian that was caught in a gun battle between her sons and the FBI. Her innocence was backed up by Alvis Karpis, one of the gang's ringleaders, after her death even though he could have gone along with rumors to reduce his own penalty (he served 33 years in prison). A better reference would have been Aileen Wunros, who admitted to killing 7 men.

Mary, along with my informal background in police strategy and tactics, I also have an informal background in psychology, and I'm concerned for your well-being. You seem threatened by outsiders, especially with fantasies of repairmen hurting you. There seems to be a social anxiety around communicating with repair people, and probably a anger issues based on your typing and remote control hygiene issues. Finally, you appear to be hallucinating, as I haven't been able to find any reference to anyone "having a good laugh", especially myself.

Let's take a deep breath and look at the situation you put yourself in during your little story. You called a third party to help you extract a remote control from a toilet. Any third party will need to take a short break to analyze exactly what you were doing to get a remote control into the toilet. Apparently satisfied with the story you presented, this professional removed the remote and validated the appropriate water flow. Again, a third party will probably concur that the decision to give a brief history of plumbing might be in order to better assist you in understanding the appropriate use of your toilet in the future. Without a formal review, I'd say 20 minutes could explain the structure and physics of your commode to an adequate level of understanding. Finally, I'd like to direct you to a similar story of consumer electronics and plumbing which ended up costing significantly more than $65: http://www.nbc11.com/news/9364784/detail.html .

We all care, Mary. Please seek help. Some of us are even concerned that you may have split personalities.

-null.

Dear Nully,
I am so far from threatened by you that I've changed my diagnosis for you to delusional. Although my diagnosis of your mental state has changed, my tone has not. I still think the police acted like small town, trigger happy, swat team wanna be's and the whole town of Savage should move to another city out of pure embarassment.
On the subject of your plumbing...uh...no one was talking about your plumbing. Ok, my new diagnosis is narcissistic/delusional because only a true narcissist would take my charming plumbing story and make it about him!
About Ma Barker...ok jr. psychologist...tell me how 4 boys become cold, ruthless killers who travel with their mother, give her all their money and are completely under her control are simply the sons of a loving and clueless mother??? God, haven't you learned anything from your crimesofthecentury/ganstas-outlawswhatever.com
studies?
Null, face it...this attack on poor whats her name is embarassing. Maybe you have a son on the force or something, or even a grandson, but please...give it up!!! Say Uncle!!! Your pinned like a dead butterfly...just admit defeat!!! You KNOW you're threatened by me and are totally projecting your insecurity. Dude, it's so obvious that I am your intellectual superior and have this whole Savage vs. Innocent Housewife deal completely figured out.
Oh, and who gives a s*** how you spell suhpeaonah??? No one!!! :)
I win.
Not that I'm competing, cuz I'm not.
Sister Mary Agnes

Rant.

Being new to the website (I just signed up as an online user) I found this thread amusing. So much written about ONE incident that was possibly not handled as it should have been but NOTHING written about the over 300 incidents the Savage Police Department responds to on a weekly basis. I find myself wondering why anyone in your community would want to serve on a police force that is so rapidly and loudly critized for a single incident but receives no editorial comments based on positive events.
I personally applaud the Savage Police Department (and this comes from direct and personal experience). Come to Dallas Texas. Now there you will have ample writing material about a police force that cares little for the people they protect in comparison to how the Savage Police force cares for y'all.