I remember when the NRA referred to the ATF as “jack booted thugs” and everybody got their panties in a wad over it. This is the worst federal law enforcement agency. It should be abolished:
A federal judge in Los Angeles blasted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for sting operations that he said unfairly enlist people in a “made-up crime” by offering them a huge payday for robbing a non-existent drug stash house.
Declaring those tactics “outrageous” and unconstitutional, U.S. District Court Judge Otis Wright took the unusual step last week of throwing out charges against a man arrested by ATF agents after one such sting.
“Society does not win when the Government stoops to the same level as the defendants it seeks to prosecute — especially when the Government has acted solely to achieve a conviction for a made-up crime,” Wright wrote. He said the stings have done little to deter crime and instead are “ensnaring chronically unemployed individuals from poverty-ridden areas.”
Our tax dollars are being spent by a law enforcement agency to invent crimes. The government has a duty to protect the rights of Americans and here they are, undermining those rights and putting people in prison for fake crimes.
The judge had more to say:
“The time has come to remind the Executive Branch that the Constitution charges it with law enforcement — not crime creation. A reverse-sting operation like this one transcends the bounds of due process and makes the Government the oppressor of its people,” Wright wrote in a scathing 24-page order.
Good. More of this should be brought to light.