ATF Launches Sting Operation in Milwaukee, Fails Miserably (again) - Polidicks

[QUOTE][B]ATF's Milwaukee sting operation marred by mistakes, failures [/B] A store calling itself Fearless Distributing opened early last year on an out-of-the-way street in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood, offering designer clothes, athletic shoes, jewelry and drug paraphernalia. Those working behind the counter, however, weren't interested in selling anything. They were undercover agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives running a storefront sting aimed at busting criminal operations in the city by purchasing drugs and guns from felons. But the effort to date has not snared any major dealers or taken down a gang.[B] Instead, it resulted in a string of mistakes and failures, including an ATF military-style machine gun landing on the streets of Milwaukee and the agency having $35,000 in merchandise stolen from its store[/B], a Journal Sentinel investigation has found. When the 10-month operation was shut down after the burglary, agents and Milwaukee police officers who participated in the sting cleared out the store but left behind a sensitive document that listed names, vehicles and phone numbers of undercover agents. And the agency remains locked in a battle with the building's owner, who says he is owed about $15,000 because of utility bills, holes in the walls, broken doors and damage from an overflowing toilet.[/QUOTE] [url=http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/atfs-milwaukee-sting-operation-marred-by-mistakes-failures-mu8akpj-188952581.html?abc=Ct5vpWpS]Read more[/url]

You had one Fucking Job.

[QUOTE=snapshot32;39420672]You had one Fucking Job.[/QUOTE] bit more complicated than that

When has the ATF done [I]anything[/I] successfully?

Their plan sounds terrible and their execution was terrible terribad/10

All this to catch whom exactly? "Drug paraphernalia" sounds like bongs, and I don't think stoners are the kind of hardened criminals worth spending 10s of thousands of dollars apprehending. Someone correct me If I'm wrong, but I can't seem to find exactly what "paraphernalia" they sold. Regardless, this is going after consumers of drugs, which is much less effective than actually tackling distributors.

holy shit im pretty sure my brother lives a few blocks away fro there

[QUOTE=Aman VII;39420698]When has the ATF done [I]anything[/I] successfully?[/QUOTE] All the time? You hear of the fuck ups, not the success stories.

It's like "sting operation" to the ATF is code for "give the people we're trying to watch all our guns".

[QUOTE=Aman VII;39420698]When has the ATF done [I]anything[/I] successfully?[/QUOTE] That time they dealt with Randy Weaver and those whackjobs in TX.

How is killing a 14 year old boy, and shooting a woman holding a baby a success, or at all defensible? All Randy Weaver did was saw off a shotgun a quarter inch under the legal limit, at a federal agents behest.

It's Milwaukee what do you expect majority of people living in the city are lower income and outside the city middle income. It's the most segregated city in America. It's above New York and Chicago now that's saying something. Also ATF would do a better job if the NRA stopped lobbying congress for lower and lower ATF budget. [sp]I live 1 1/2 hour north of Milwaukee.[/sp]

Sounds like an episode of Reno 911.

Tax payer dollars at work.

[QUOTE=Aman VII;39420698]When has the ATF done [I]anything[/I] successfully?[/QUOTE] There are likely thousands of ATF officials every day doing good work, but "Government Agency Fucks Up" is more interesting news than "Man does job, is paid for it"

Did I not say the ATF (And FBI) was a joke not 10 days ago. When it comes to actual police work, they're useless and don't do shit for the amount of money and manpower that they have

[QUOTE=The Letter Q;39420766]All this to catch whom exactly? "Drug paraphernalia" sounds like bongs, and I don't think stoners are the kind of hardened criminals worth spending 10s of thousands of dollars apprehending. Someone correct me If I'm wrong, but I can't seem to find exactly what "paraphernalia" they sold. Regardless, this is going after consumers of drugs, which is much less effective than actually tackling distributors.[/QUOTE] [quote] They were undercover agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives running a storefront sting aimed at busting criminal operations in the city by purchasing drugs and guns from felons.[/quote] Sounds less like they were going after casual smokers or whatever and more like they were trying to snare drug and weapon dealers by acting like interested buyers. Selling bongs was probably a front they put up to try to seem more appealing to those sort of people, like "Hey, you sell drugs, we sell bongs, let's cut a deal!" They still did a shitty job at it.

[QUOTE=Vodkavia;39421066]Fast and Furious Lite.[/QUOTE] Quick and Annoyed

[quote]When the 10-month operation was shut down after the burglary, agents and Milwaukee police officers who participated in the sting cleared out the store [b]but left behind a sensitive document that listed names, vehicles and phone numbers of undercover agents.[/b][/quote] How do you fuck up that badly?

[QUOTE=Aide;39422948]It's Milwaukee what do you expect majority of people living in the city are lower income and outside the city middle income. It's the most segregated city in America. It's above New York and Chicago now that's saying something. Also ATF would do a better job if the NRA stopped lobbying congress for lower and lower ATF budget. [sp]I live 1 1/2 hour north of Milwaukee.[/sp][/QUOTE] Implying they'd be able to do better by throwing even more money at things, then they can send even more guns into Mexico, loose them and go "Whoops, lets try that again, hope people don't get killed again this time, that'd be embarrassing." The ATF needs to be dissolved and every ATF agent from top to bottom blacklisted from ever holding a position in government again. They're a leftover from the prohibition era that no longer has any gangsters to fight and what little good they do is overshadowed by all the shit they routinely cause and are never held accountable for, they're a threat to everyone in North America. [QUOTE=KillerJaguar;39425823]How do you fuck up that badly?[/QUOTE] You don't know the ATF very well do you? Barney Fife could do the job better (So long as he keeps his bullet in his pocket anyway).

The only time I saw an ATF agent do the job well was Denzel Washington in Deja Vu

The thing is, you probably wont hear of a successful sting operation because they don't want people to know about successful stings - a failed sting will make the news because criminals could take it as they're all incompetent agents, so they'll be more relaxed with their merchandise because they think that a sting will be obvious, due to said incompetent agents

[QUOTE=Sir M;39426387]The thing is, you probably wont hear of a successful sting operation because they don't want people to know about successful stings - a failed sting will make the news because criminals could take it as they're all incompetent agents, so they'll be more relaxed with their merchandise because they think that a sting will be obvious, due to said incompetent agents[/QUOTE] Except when the ATF fails they tend to fail spectacularly and put people in extreme danger, even get people killed. Then their reaction is pretty much "Whoops, sorry about that, better luck next time." If they can't sweep what happened under the rug anyway.

[QUOTE=KillerJaguar;39425823]How do you fuck up that badly?[/QUOTE] By working for the ATF. Fucking up is all they do. Hell, at one point they classified a shoelace as a machine gun.

[quote] When the 10-month operation was shut down after the burglary, agents and Milwaukee police officers who participated in the sting cleared out the store but left behind a sensitive document that listed names, vehicles and phone numbers of undercover agents.[/quote] Masterstroke.

[QUOTE=RR_Raptor65;39426877]Except when the ATF fails they tend to fail spectacularly and put people in extreme danger, even get people killed. Then their reaction is pretty much "Whoops, sorry about that, better luck next time." If they can't sweep what happened under the rug anyway.[/QUOTE] By that notation then we should shutdown the DEA. We all know drug war has failed.

[QUOTE=Sir M;39426387]The thing is, you probably wont hear of a successful sting operation because they don't want people to know about successful stings - a failed sting will make the news because criminals could take it as they're all incompetent agents, so they'll be more relaxed with their merchandise because they think that a sting will be obvious, due to said incompetent agents[/QUOTE] Let's be honest here, keeping successful stings under wraps doesn't make their failures any less disastrous. Even if we hadn't heard about it they still lost an automatic rifle and $35,000, and endangered their other agents by leaving information around. While that isn't grounds to ax the agency, it definitely signals that they need to reevaluate their strategies and the agents themselves.

[QUOTE=TheTalon;39423509]Did I not say the ATF (And FBI) was a joke not 10 days ago. When it comes to actual police work, they're useless and don't do shit for the amount of money and manpower that they have[/QUOTE] Not sure how the FBI plays into this. Not to mention a significant portion of the FBI budget is devoted to counter intelligence. They are the domestic counterpart to the CIA. They hunt spies. The ATF is of questionable usefulness however.