ATF uses rogue tactics in storefront stings across the nation. Including Milwaukee

I encourage you to read the full story at the link below this post. Good read!

By John Diedrich and Raquel Rutledge of the Journal Sentinel

"Agency said failures of Milwaukee operation were isolated, but the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found similar issues in at least six cities nationwide — targeting the mentally disabled, encouraging crimes and more."

"ATF agents befriended mentally disabled people to drum up business and later arrested them in at least four cities in addition to Milwaukee..."

 "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..."

" Problems with storefront stings surfaced publicly earlier this year when the Journal Sentinel followed up on a tip from a Milwaukee landlord that the ATF had damaged his building and left behind sensitive documents revealing details about undercover agents and their operation."

"The newspaper's investigation found the operation, dubbed Fearless Distributing, was marred by far more than the landlord knew. A machine gun and other weapons had been stolen from an agent's car, the storefront was burglarized, agents arrested the wrong people and hired the brain-damaged man, who had an IQ of 54, to set up gun and drug deals.

The machine gun has not been recovered."

 "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. 

"There is enough crime out there, why do you have to manufacture it?" said Jeff Griffith, a lawyer for a defendant in Wichita. "You are really creating crime, which then you are prosecuting. You wonder where the moral high ground is in this."

"In Milwaukee, agents let a felon with a violent history leave their undercover store armed with a gun, saying he needed it for retaliation." 
 

READ THE FULL STORY HERE...

 Journal Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/atf-uses-rogue-tactics-in-storefront-stings-across-the-nation-b99146765z1-234916641.html#ixzz2mt9cdc9A
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