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A real ATF undercover op
Story here. As the author notes, the guys who do this face two risks. (1) Getting killed by the targets, who are now into background checks! (2) Being ruined by backstabbing superiors, as has happened to agents in the past if the operation wasn't 100% successful. Then it goes to finger-pointing, and the guys at the bottom of the bureaucratic food chain wind up on the receiving end.
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Interesting, I was wondering if it was the same Tom Diaz (it's a pretty common name).
Confirmed....same Tom Diaz
http://tomdiaz.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/gangster-artillery-atf-mushroom-farmers-and-nra-trick-dogs/
I understand the situation, I don't see the problem. Do we really care if one outlaw gang infiltrates another? Do we really care which gang punishes its members?
Staightarrow, I would guess that you don't make your livelihood by working in the justice system with that comment.
I'm glad the op was successful, but the ATF should still be disbanded.
I have nothing good to say about any violent criminals. But I believe the media coverage and the law enforcement bragging rights seems to be more stacked up on motorcycle gangs. The street gangs like the Bloods and the Crips are far more violent and the amount of violent crimes that they do are many folds higher.
I believe the motorcycle gangs are more on the lines of white male bashing than real law enforcement. If the Hells Angles and the Outlaws were having an on going gang war. With a weekend having a shoot out between the two gangs. Leaving two dead and three wonded. You would see so much media coverage and law enforcement types getting as much media time as they could, demanding law and order. Yet, pick any big city and two deaths and three injuries are an every day thing. Yet, no big media event or no LEO's faces on TV. One only needs to look at the shoot out in NV a few years ago to understand this point.
[...] ATF Undercover Ops - Routine Failures [...]
Contrary to what the article implies, most of these ops are far less than successful. They tend to indict many and convict one or two.
ATF actions have also created a climate of fear. More so for gunnies than motorcyclists, but it's there.
I'm not gonna bad mouth the ATF or FBI for that matter, but when things go bad....they go really bad.
Waco Texas was a perfect example of bad judgement. Then the Randy Weaver incident just made me puke.
On the other hand, I am glad that we have folks that would take the risks to themselves and sacrifice long hours to weed out society's bad elements.
Tom Diaz may be a friend of ATF agents, but he is no friend to us. He's author of "Making a killing",which recommended allowing the ATF to reulate guns out of existence as inherently unsafe consumer products, and at the time, was a "senior policy analyst" at the Violence Policy Center.