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/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl General Category >> Politics, Religion (Tall Table) >> Do what the government asks of you /cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1365463319 Message started by Paraquat on 04/08/13 at 16:21:59 |
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Title: Do what the government asks of you Post by Paraquat on 04/08/13 at 16:21:59 ATF agents running an undercover storefront in Milwaukee used a brain-damaged man with a low IQ to set up gun and drug deals, paying him in cigarettes, merchandise and money, according to federal documents obtained by the Journal Sentinel. For more than six months, federal agents relied on Chauncey Wright to promote "Fearless Distributing" by handing out fliers as he rode his bike around town recommending the store to friends, family and strangers, according to federal prosecutors and family members. Wright, unaware that the store was an undercover operation being run by agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, also stocked shelves with shoes, clothing, drug paraphernalia and auto parts, according to his family. Once authorities shut down the operation, they charged the 28-year-old man with federal gun and drug counts. "I have never heard of anything so ludicrous in my life," said Greg Thiele, who spent 30 years working for the Milwaukee Police Department including on undercover stings with federal agents, including those with the ATF. "Something is very wrong here." Wright's IQ measures in the 50s, about half of a normal IQ, according to those familiar with him. Wright's score is classified as mildly or moderately disabled, depending on the IQ scale used. At Wright's sentencing in June, prosecutors will recommend probation, based on his "mental functioning," according to his plea agreement on file with the court. Wright has undergone a competency evaluation "due to his low IQ," according to a Feb. 14 email from then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis Schmitz to attorney Doug Bihler who represented James Warren, another defendant in the case. Schmitz's email to Bihler indicates prosecutors believe Wright is a vulnerable person. Prosecutors threatened Warren with stiffer penalties for "taking advantage" of Wright, according to the email. But as the situation unfolded, it was ATF agents who were taking advantage of Wright. "That's just hugely inappropriate. It's no different than using a kid," said Jim Hoegemeier, executive director of the Arc-Wisconsin Disability Association. "They had to have known after working with him for more than a couple of hours." "This is real exploitation," said Shirin Cabraal, managing attorney for Disability Rights Wisconsin. "It's morally outrageous." Wright's family said he was eager to be accepted by the undercover officers. "With him being slow, they knew that and they used him," said Willie Campbell, Wright's grandmother. "He was too slow to catch on to what was going on. He was saying, 'These are my good friends. These are my guys. They are looking out for me.' "Whatever they told him to do, he would try to keep his job and he would do it." The issue of Wright's mental capacity is another stain on an investigation marked by repeated failures and foul-ups identified by a Journal Sentinel investigation: ATF guns, including a machine gun, were stolen from an agent's vehicle; agents lost a ballistic shield; the storefront was burglarized of what agents said was nearly $40,000 in merchandise; agents left behind sensitive documents after they shut down the operation; and at least three of the wrong people were charged. In addition, agents damaged the building and ran up utility bills, then refused to pay the landlord and warned him against pursuing the matter. Last week, the Journal Sentinel revealed how the agency failed to capitalize on early leads to find its stolen machine gun, instead keeping its storefront going. The automatic rifle remains unrecovered. Members of both parties in Congress have demanded answers. The ATF has launched an internal investigation. The Department of Justice inspector general is considering an independent examination, saying the Milwaukee operation raises concern about the ATF's oversight and management. An ATF spokeswoman declined to comment because its investigation is not complete. The 10-month operation resulted in charges against about 30 people, most on minor drug and gun counts, though federal officials have noted a few defendants are facing long prison terms. Some 145 guns were seized, but some came straight from stores such as Gander Mountain, because agents were paying as much as double the retail price for guns. Schmitz, who recently retired as a federal prosecutor, took the unusual step of criticizing the investigation at a sentencing, saying it failed to get the kinds of violent criminals the operation was designed to bust. Employing Wright Wright met the undercover ATF agents in the parking lot of Walmart on E. Capitol Drive, his girlfriend, Terri Giles, told the Journal Sentinel. Wright spotted the men handing out fliers and walked up and asked for a job. Wright, who was living with Giles at the time, had long had trouble keeping a job. Soon Wright was riding his bike around the city, distributing fliers for the store, drawing people to its out-of-the-way location on E. Meinecke Ave. in the Riverwest neighborhood. The agents paid Wright with cigarettes, merchandise and $530 in cash for marketing and "generating business" from February to September of last year, according to a letter written by Assistant U.S. Attorney William Lipscomb and obtained by the Journal Sentinel from Warren, who remains incarcerated awaiting trial and could not be reached for comment. Lipscomb declined to comment. Agents also spread the word by giving away T-shirts emblazoned with the Fearless logo - a skull with guns and knives fanned out behind, taken from the movie "The Expendables" - and attaching business cards to packages of cigar wrappers, often used to roll marijuana blunts. Giles said she was suspicious from the beginning and told Wright as much. She went to the store a few times, browsing through the clothes, purses and shoes. They were running a raffle, asking customers to fill out a slip for a chance to win a big-screen TV. They also had gun catalogs on the counter. When Giles asked if they sold guns, a man behind the counter said no, but quickly added they buy guns. The store was wired with sophisticated hidden cameras recording all the transactions. "Everything was wrong about that place," she said. "I told him, 'It's on a dead-end street. There's no windows. Don't you feel something funny about it?' He said, 'These are my guys.' He really thought they were his friends." Wright is in the Waukesha County Jail awaiting sentencing on the federal charges. He also is facing a battery charge stemming from a domestic violence incident in June. Wright's attorney, Joseph Bugni, declined to comment and denied the Journal Sentinel's request to interview Wright. Wright presented an attractive target for the agents. He has a relatively minor criminal history, but it does include a felony, a 2007 conviction for selling $10 bags of cocaine on the street. He got probation. That felony made it a federal crime for Wright to possess a gun. Records from Wright's previous cases don't indicate that he received any tests for mental competency. However, his girlfriend said anyone who was around Wright for a period of time would notice his mind is not functioning properly. Giles said it is especially noticeable in conversations when he drifts off and appears to be talking to someone who is not there. "I will say, 'Do you know who you are talking to?' " she said. "His marbles aren't clicking right together." His family said Wright's mental difficulties are traced to an incident when he was an infant and nearly drowned when he was left for at least 10 minutes unattended in a bathtub. Wright was unconscious for several minutes before police arrived and revived him, his grandmother said. Campbell recalled her daughter wailing over the phone that her baby was dead, that his head was just flopping. "Somehow he survived," she said. Wright was noticeably slower than his two brothers and always had trouble in school. He did not attend much school past sixth grade, according to his family. He was on Social Security for his disability when he was a child but had refused to sign up as an adult. His uncle, Tyrone Joiner, took him in after Wright's mother died of an infection when he was in grade school. Joiner said his nephew worked a few jobs, at a school and the State Fair, but he could never hold one for long. He knows how to drive a car but rarely does because he can't afford to get one. His first serious relationship was with Giles, who is about 15 years older than he is. "Chauncey (Wright) has never been right," Joiner said. Disability experts say people with traumatic brain injuries such as Wright's are often desperate for acceptance and belonging. "Even if they think what someone is asking them to do is a little unusual, they will say 'yes' because they want to be included. It's part of their disability," said Hoegemeier of the Arc-Wisconsin Disability Association. "They have a big, huge target on them for being used by other people." Campbell said she, too, warned her grandson against working at the store. She drove by the store once and told Wright it didn't even look like a business - at least not a legitimate one. "I told him, 'You better be careful,' " she said. "He is a trusting person who loves to help people." Followed agents' requests The agents soon began asking Wright to get drugs and guns, according to his family. They kept asking and he complied, thinking it was part of his job, they said. "He was faithful to that store," his grandmother said. Wright sold the agents cocaine in March 2012 and teamed with Warren, who is his cousin, to sell them ecstasy a few months later, according to court documents. Wright then began to bring guns to the undercover agents, eight in all, according to court documents. In October, when the store was burglarized, the agents called Wright and asked him if he knew what happened. He didn't know. And that was the last he heard from them. He was indicted on seven drug and gun counts and arrested a month later. The counts carry a maximum of life in prison. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Wright faces about four years in prison. After the competency evaluation of Wright, an amended plea agreement was filed showing prosecutors agree to recommend probation if the U.S. Probation Office finds Wright can be successfully supervised in a setting "consistent with (Wright's) mental functioning." At Wright's plea hearing last month, Lipscomb said a doctor's evaluation found Wright to be "mildly mentally retarded." Bugni, Wright's attorney, told U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller an expert found Wright to be competent "under the governing legal standard." He also told the judge he had to read the plea agreement to Wright, because Wright reads at a kindergarten level. Attorney Daniel Stiller, head of the federal defender's office, which is representing Wright, said his competency will be raised at the sentencing. "It will be demonstrated that this law enforcement operation was capable of ensnaring some of the most vulnerable among us," Stiller said. Rory Little, a former longtime federal prosecutor, said unless Wright has tight ties to big-time drug or gun dealers it doesn't make sense to recruit him into the operation. "My choice would be to get a guy with enough brains not to do something crazy on my payroll," said Little, now a professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. However, he said, agents don't always have many options. "You normally are stuck with whoever happens to be able to provide you with what you need, and usually they aren't very attractive individuals," Little said. "But I can't believe he (Wright) is the only guy in Milwaukee who could fit that bill." *** |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by Paraquat on 04/08/13 at 16:23:20 *** A flawed operation A Journal Sentinel investigation found failures and foul-ups in an undercover operation run by the ATF: • ATF guns were stolen from an agent's vehicle; a machine gun remains unrecovered. • The storefront was burglarized of nearly $40,000 in merchandise. • Agents left behind sensitive documents after they shut down the operation. • Agents damaged the building, then refused to pay the landlord, warning him against pursuing the matter. • At least three of the wrong people were arrested and charged, including one who was in prison at the time. • Authorities failed to capitalize on early leads to find the stolen machine gun. http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/botched-atf-sting-in-milwaukee-ensnares-braindamaged-man-pk9d6or-201794871.html Cliff notes: ATF asked a brain damaged, low IQ black guy to solicit sales. They paid him in merchandise and cigs, and then arrested him on federal charges. Also the ATF "lost" a machine gun. --Steve |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by justin_o_guy2 on 04/08/13 at 19:00:22 Everyone of those people should be in jail, Except the guy who got arrested. |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by oldNslow on 04/08/13 at 20:10:11 This stuff shouldn't even suprise anyone any more. It's SOP for the ATF. After all, their only reason for existence is to attempt to enforce laws that shouldn't be on the books anyway. Running ridiculous sting operations like this is their stock in trade. Unfortunately,sometimes their schemes go really, really, bad and people die - like at Waco, Ruby Ridge, and most recently, Fast and Furious. BATFE is the prototype of a government agency run amok. If our congress was actually ethical and responsible, BATFE would have been defunded and disbanded long before now. |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by justin_o_guy2 on 04/08/13 at 20:56:17 If I had my way, BATFE would continue to exist, but their mission would change a little. I think BATFE should be a store..Id be hittin those Blue Lite Specials.. |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by Midnightrider on 04/09/13 at 00:50:36 That has a lot to say about the ATF. I believe they should be dismantled and save the billions. Throw in the DEA while we're at and the Homeland Security. We have enough Law Enforcement. If everybody would carry concealed we could lay off 2/3of em. The second amendment gives you the right to carry concealed.These local yocal sheffiffs and judges have no right getting involed with it. |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by Dane Allen on 04/09/13 at 10:12:47 2E0A070D0A040B17110A070611630 wrote:
Excellent point!!! Why does every agency need it's own militarized enforcement division? All these sawed-off shotgun wielding military units of the EPA, FDA, Social Security, Medicare, etc. need to be dismantled and the budgets disolved. |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by srinath on 04/10/13 at 19:51:48 Yea we need to stop medicare and social security. After all we just told them we'll give these old people $$$ after we took it from them for 30-40 years or sent them off to a war with no strategy and they lost an arm or an eye or blow off 1/2 their brain ... yea y'know now we dont like it, so we say screw that ... nothing for you. You should have stayed here and been a billionaire, you'd be living off the billions now and pay 13% ... While we're at it we're also going to ignore the roads, bridges, airports, the water and sewer, and electrical lines etc, and the cops and fire fighters, yea we can save lots of $$$ we fire them all. Cool. Srinath. |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by houstonbofh on 04/10/13 at 22:35:10 25243F3837223E560 wrote:
Do you even follow the conversation most of the time? |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by WD on 04/11/13 at 00:44:00 Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives... sounds like quite the party, who's covering the chips... ::) I've had run ins with them before. Very entertaining. "Why does every agency need it's own militarized enforcement division? All these sawed-off shotgun wielding military units of the EPA, FDA, Social Security, Medicare, etc. need to be dismantled and the budgets disolved. " Srinath, I didn't see disband the entire Social Security Administration, just the batch of yahoos that think the agency needs to be armed. We don't need DHS or the TSA, that's what the Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force are for. DEA is a waste of resources, picking up some dumb kid over a dime bag is a waste of time. FDA and the USDA aren't at all concerned with food or drug safety, they are revenue agents, pay them enough and your toxins are approved... The government already ignores infrastructure, has for decades. Nothing new to get hot and bothered about. |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by srinath on 04/11/13 at 06:44:20 0E2B242F0B26262F244A0 wrote:
Excellent point!!! Why does every agency need it's own militarized enforcement division? All these sawed-off shotgun wielding military units of the EPA, FDA, Social Security, Medicare, etc. need to be dismantled and the budgets disolved.[/quote] WD and houstonbofh ^^^^^^^^^ Read that. The post just above my previous post. And tell me that doesn't mean killing SS and Medicare ? Cool. Srinath. |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by justin_o_guy2 on 04/11/13 at 07:23:32 All these sawed-off shotgun wielding military units of the EPA, FDA, Social Security, Medicare, etc. need to be dismantled and the budgets disolved. Read that again, Go Slow. All these sawed-off shotgun wielding military units of the ( name that group) need to be dismantled If the Boy Scouts had a militaristic Armed group, would removing THAT from The Boy Scouts mean dissolving the Boy Scouts? NO,, BUt, youll swear it does, because YOure Never Wrong. You REad to fulfill your agenda. It says what you need it to say in order to justify some position,, OR, youre gonna admit you simply read that wrong.. lets wait & see.. |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by Dane Allen on 04/11/13 at 11:48:05 7360240 wrote:
I can assure you that the freeways in Southern California have not seen maintenance in a long time. Money spent on roads and bridges takes away from money used by liberals to make hollow promises that buy them elections. I mean, if a liberal can't detour( ;D detour, get it ;D I know you do ;)) money to special interests then how will they keep their jobs??? Actually doing their jobs? Yeah, right!!! ;D ;D ;D |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by srinath on 04/11/13 at 12:31:54 Huh, interesting, since you guys elected the "Guvernator" I thought everything was hunky dory. In our state NC repair of roads does occour, as does building of new ones. Its probably got all the other related inefficiencies and corruption at all levels, but atleast stuff gets bad, bad, bad, and repaired. Probably lots of the people living here pay 20-25% and very few commies paying 10-13%. Cool. Srinath. |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by srinath on 04/11/13 at 12:33:18 4D5254534E4978487840525E15270 wrote:
JOG - Medicare and SS have sawed off shot gun weilding military units ? Cool. Srinath. |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by houstonbofh on 04/11/13 at 13:47:09 6E6F74737C69751D0 wrote:
JOG - Medicare and SS have sawed off shot gun weilding military units ? [/quote] They have both purchased a lot of ammo... And the point was why have multiple and non-communcationg police agencies, when they could be combined into a more efficient single unit? Leave federal law enforcement to the group charted with that, the FBI. Then you went off on bridge repair... |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by srinath on 04/11/13 at 13:54:12 2A2D3731362D2C202D242A420 wrote:
I dunno about the ammo. Multiple non communication agencies is an artifact of a bureaucracy that was created before we had electronics or any computers to communicate ... It may be time to get these to communicate - you want to pay for modernising the whole law enforcement arm of the EPA and the FDA, where they engage local cops seamlessly when they see a fake pharma lab pumping out hill billy heroin in the name of Rush Limbaugh's headache medicine ? several billion oughta do it per year for ~10. Yes it will be cheaper to do that than to work the bureaucracy in the long run, but in the 10 years it will be before the communication will be stood up, the bureaucracy will have to run parallel, so 10 years, several billion per year, and then we can cut off the bureaucracy by 1/2 or more. Cool. Srinath. |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by Dane Allen on 04/11/13 at 16:20:49 282F3533342F2E222F2628400 wrote:
JOG - Medicare and SS have sawed off shot gun weilding military units ? [/quote] They have both purchased a lot of ammo... And the point was why have multiple and non-communcationg police agencies, when they could be combined into a more efficient single unit? Leave federal law enforcement to the group charted with that, the FBI. Then you went off on bridge repair...[/quote] One example - Department of Education buys Sawed-off Shotguns...http://www.wnd.com/2010/03/131493/ That is one bad-A Truancy Officer!! No school today, I'm bleeding from 35 double-ot buck wounds!!! |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by houstonbofh on 04/11/13 at 18:09:51 66677C7B74617D150 wrote:
I hate to tell you this, but CSI isn't real, and it is not seamless. |
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Title: Re: Do what the government asks of you Post by srinath on 04/12/13 at 18:26:53 585F4543445F5E525F5658300 wrote:
I hate to tell you this, but CSI isn't real, and it is not seamless.[/quote] What CSI ? hill billy heroin is oxycontin, and a place in west virigina was making it. And no I did not see it on CSI: WV. And you're referring to modernising the fda and epa etc etc - its well publicized that the systems dont integrate to each other. Cool. Srinath. |
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