Via: Journal Sentinel:
The Journal Sentinel reviewed thousands of pages of court
records, police reports and other documents and interviewed dozens of
people involved in six ATF operations nationwide that were publicly
praised by the ATF in recent years for nabbing violent criminals and
making cities safer.
Agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives employed rogue tactics similar to those used in Milwaukee in
every operation, from Portland, Ore., to Pensacola, Fla.
Among the findings:
* ATF agents befriended mentally disabled people to drum up business
and later arrested them in at least four cities in addition to
Milwaukee. In Wichita, Kan., ATF agents referred to a man with a low IQ
as “slow-headed” before deciding to secretly use him as a key cog in
their sting. And agents in Albuquerque, N.M., gave a brain-damaged drug
addict with little knowledge of weapons a “tutorial” on machine guns,
hoping he could find them one.
* Agents in several cities opened undercover gun- and drug-buying
operations in safe zones near churches and schools, allowed juveniles to
come in and play video games and teens to smoke marijuana, and provided
alcohol to underage youths. In Portland, attorneys for three teens who
were charged said a female agent dressed provocatively, flirted with the
boys and encouraged them to bring drugs and weapons to the store to
sell.
* As they did in Milwaukee, agents in other cities offered sky-high
prices for guns, leading suspects to buy firearms at stores and turn
around and sell them to undercover agents for a quick profit. In other
stings, agents ran fake pawnshops and readily bought stolen items, such
as electronics and bikes — no questions asked — spurring burglaries and
theft. In Atlanta, agents bought guns that had been stolen just hours
earlier, several ripped off from police cars.
* Agents damaged buildings they rented for their operations, tearing
out walls and rewiring electricity — then stuck landlords with the
repair bills. A property owner in Portland said agents removed a parking
lot spotlight,damaging her new $30,000 roof and causing leaks, before
they shut down the operation and disappeared without a way for her to
contact them.
* Agents pressed suspects for specific firearms that could fetch
tougher penalties in court. They allowed felons to walk out of the
stores armed with guns. In Wichita, agents suggested a felon take a
shotgun, saw it off and bring it back — and provided instructions on how
to do it. The sawed-off gun allowed them to charge the man with a more
serious crime.
* In Pensacola, the ATF hired a felon to run its pawnshop. The move
widened the pool of potential targets, boosting arrest numbers.Even
those trying to sell guns legally could be charged if they knowingly
sold to a felon. The ATF’s pawnshop partner was later convicted of
pointing a loaded gun at someone outside a bar. Instead of a stiff
sentence typically handed down to repeat offenders in federal court, he
got six months in jail — and a pat on the back from the prosecutor.
“To say this is just a few people, a few bad apples, I don’t
buy it,” said David Harris, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh
School of Law and an expert on law enforcement tactics and regulation.
“If your agency is in good shape with policy, training, supervision and
accountability, the bad apples will not be able to take things to this
level.”
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