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“The weapons charges are flat. Almost everything else except weapons takes precedence. To me, that’s a cultural thing we need to overcome.” – Anonymous ATF agent in THE WATCHDOGS: Despite promises, feds’ fight against guns lagging [via suntimes.com]

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56 COMMENTS

  1. What is it with TAG, read the story, the problem is with the Feds, not Chicago.

    Also, can someone here please explain to me how you prosicute straw purchasers other than getting them to admit it.

    • “…explain to me how you prosicute [sic] straw purchasers…”

      That one is easy. First you enact an unconstitutional law that says you cannot buy a firearm for someone who has been unconstitutionally prohibited from buying that firearm for themselves.

      Next you create a federal agency (BATFE) specifically tasked with enforcing the aforesaid unconstitutional laws.

      Next you enlist informants to let you know when they think a straw purchase has been made or you conduct sting operations or you just stumble on a weapon in the possession of an unconstitutionally prohibited person and you find out who bought the thing and you unconstitutionally punish them for that transaction.

      See? Simple.

      • Ok, so you are cool with a felon who is out on parole being armed. How about someone out on bail for a violent crime. Or are you one of those who believe that the government has a crystal ball that lets them know who to release or keep in jail. I know, if they are too dangerous to own a gun they should not be on the streets. So, we should just have convicts prove that they will never commit a violent crime as a condition of release?

        • Simple solution. If you’re found guilty of a violent crime serious enough to warrant long term incarceration… (attempted murder and up) You don’t get released. Period. You get worked to death in a sweatshop replacing third world labor.

        • What, you think the prohibition on certain people having guns prevents them from obtaining guns? Yeah, right. Even if the intent is good (which is highly debatable in this case), laws that don’t work should be changed or repealed. Plain and simple. THAT is how you streamline the system, and we desperately need to streamline our laws.

    • Yes, this is a federal prosecutor, but the local city and county law enforcement culture isn’t any better. They’re notorious for their anemic crime resolution rates and light sentences. It’s all part of one big toxic ecosystem.

    • The real problem is that many citizens will rarely convict a gang member of a crime. It’s too dangerous because of retaliation. There will usually be a holdout or two on the jury so that it’s a waste of time to prosecute. It’s going to get a lot worse.

      In California, theft of less than $1000 has been essentially decriminalized — is a misdemeanor and few perps will be prosecuted because of the costs involved.

      Welcome to the Third World, thanks to liberals and progressives.

      • Forget prosecuting; it’s time to take a page from the playbook of Caesar Augustus:

        Pick one local gang. Infiltrate it with special forces experts in urban warfare, take it over. Add more special forces. Now, just eliminate the other gangs with extreme prejudice.

        Any who surrender get the privilege of lifetime enlistment in a special military unit that gets sent to the the worst jobs in the nastiest way.

        Move to a new city, repeat.

  2. Instead of waging a ‘fight against guns’, law enforcement and elected officials need to wage a war against crime in Chicago. That means targeting the PEOPLE committing these crimes, most whom are younf African-Americans and Hispanics. In all likelihood, this won’t happen since those two racial groups are crucial to the Democrat party’s power structure. So, they’ll continue to pander and demagogue this issue; demonizing fireams and looking for more ways to strip law abiding citizens of their civil rights.

    • “…war against crime in Chicago.”

      Also read as: “War against democrat voting Chicagoans”. Yeah…that ain’t gonna happen. Can’t go and alienate your constituents, and all that.

        • The gangs are in fact deeply intertwined with the electoral process, being assiduously courted by Democrat politicians to participate in “get out the vote” campaigns.

          Chicago Democrats would no more go after the gangs than the NSDAP would go after the SA in 1932.

        • And if 68,000 names each vote 10 times absentee/at the polls that’s some big impact. If it only costs $50 to get one “legend” registered in 10 precincts and he/she votes 10 times at each election @ $25/election over the next 100 years or so the ROI is HUGE.

      • Also known as “a war on a big chunk of the Chicago City Council and the Chicago Police Department.”

        The REAL issue is a plain to see as Lake Michigan. The VAST majority of shootings are gang related.

        Of course expecting the gang infiltrated police to attack the gangs protected by the gang infiltrated city council is purest insanity.

    • No, much worse. That Demographic which you were talking about is big business to the DemoCRAPS, and the Political Police-safety state machine to help them with their overzealous self-worth, job entitlements, special privileges, etc…(re: various ethnic, and racial organized gangs. Obviously, some with Foreign affairs ties, or connections to Foreign governments. Or like our CIA…See DemoCRAPPIC Party for more details…)

  3. Because there is a narrative here. Farago and many others here whine about the liberal narrative echo chamber while ignoring their own. Of course, just as the lefties believe their narrative is the gospel those on the right believe the same. That should get things started.

      • I, for one, have many things that I have no doubt about, but I only have one belief.

        There are only four Gospels.

        Sad ate and ate is a liberal and not from here.

        • There are only four gospels – that the Catholic Church allowed to be included in their official version of the divinely inspired word of God. You have no idea what writings or Gospels, also supposedly divinely inspired, the machinations of pious men prevented from being published in the Bible.

          You may believe what you wish and what makes you feel comfortable, but declarations of faith in a higher power have no useful purpose in the discussion of conclusions based on logic and reason.

        • The “Books” of the Old Testament and “New Testament” are universal across Christianity.

          GOD has allowed HIS WORD to persist in this form. It is more unique than the U.S. Constitution, in it’s governance, and already contains more human history than any other text. Many claim that certain other writings were removed, but not being ‘included’ does not equal that.
          Apocrypha NEEDS to be excluded. St. Jude’s epistle (the second to last chapter of the New Testament before the last chapter Revelations) warns of this. Funny (somewhat tangentially) St. Jude warned the faithful to be on guard against apocrypha, and yet the story that St. Jude is more famous for (bringing JESUS’ likeness a great distance to show, and heal someone of strong faith) could not have happened historically. However, GOD has used this attempted corruption of HIS WORD to bring about a tremendous increase in Faith and Prayer in the Church Militant.
          May GOD forever Speak To His People.

        • Um… Joe. You might want to look into the concept of apothrecapal (sp?) gospels. Basically, a few centuries into the first millennium, the leaders of the then mostly unified Christian church sat down and decided which testaments to include in the Bible and which not to. That’s a well documented fact.

          The warning from “St. Jude” is likely a retcon from that period.

        • I covered Apocrypha, and St. Jude predates any subsequent gospels. St. Jude essentially says [and I mean no translation and pray my LORD not let me cause even the shadow of your foot to fall outside the path HE has set you on] ‘buck-up, be strong in your faith, and beware and suffer not all the people who attempt to throw their interpretation of the WORD OF GOD at you.’

          St. Jude pray for us.

        • Cliff H, as someone who has read on the order of fifty thousand pages on the topic, I’m sick and tired of the “There are only four gospels – that the Catholic Church allowed to be included in their official version of the divinely inspired word of God” meme. Simply put, that is so much B.S.; for starters, the books had been settled on before there was a Catholic Church. The selection was done by all the local congregations deciding what they trusted, and it was essentially finished a good century before Athanasius ever published his comprehensive list — and the list held only four Gospels a good century before that.

        • +++

          Ya, the Catholic Church gets it on all sides. But JESUS said to Peter (the only other water-walker [at JESUS’ command]), “You are my rock, and upon that rock, I will build my church”. Peter went to Rome and was hung upside down on a cross (in deference to our LORD), but first he started the church of Rome. He is buried under St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome.

          We (Catholics) might only be the foundation, but you better hope we don’t move.

          LAUS DEO !

    • SO when Obumer states there is no election fraud in Chicago we shouldn’t laugh at the moron? That “gospel” of the libtards?

  4. Whining about a lack of Federal gun charges. No mention of the complete and utter failure of local prosecutors to convict these recidivist offenders and impose stiff sentences. No mention of the plea deals that have these criminals back on the streets in months or a couple of years.

    Imagine that.

    • Did you see the gem Anita wrote?

      http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-anita-alvarez-gun-crimes-sentences-perspec-20160902-story.html

      “Studies show that 63 percent of these gun offenders will reoffend within 12 months of release, and they are four times as likely to commit a homicide. This is a blood-soaked statistic demonstrated very clearly in the vicious murder of Nykea Aldridge and so many other innocents.”

      Even within the premise of reform based prison systems, these people are NOT reformed and are still a threat to society from a statistical standpoint.

      • Locking them up in current prisons is just sending them to Crime U. They need to be sent to a cross between prison and military school. Wake up, drill; breakfast, study time, drill; lunch, classroom time, drill: dinner, free hour, drill; lights out. Repeat.

  5. At least they’re admitting in open source recorded statements that they are our problem. This IS a national issue, someone else needs to get in their, bitch-slap-to-sleep that whole US Attorney’s office, and then do their job for them. Lot’s of phantom blame in the article: 2013 gov’t shitdown; lack of enforcement; gang organization; etc., and we still have people freaked out by guns ““When people like the defendant collect their VAST ARSENALS [21 “guns”, emphasis mine] of dangerous guns and then turn around and sell those guns to whoever is willing to buy them illegally on the street, a powder keg is lit,” prosecutors said in a court filing in McIntosh’s case.”
    What’s not absorbing any accountability are the people who are vying for the enforcement jobs and then not doing them. Further, they act as though it’s a complete mystery as to how each piece of their puzzle works. It reminds me of the NRA, “We din’t want to win the argument over gun rights, we just want to be able to continue to have a conversation so that we can eek out minute and finite victories here and there”.

    Chitcago is indeed “our” (US National) problem and the next politician, of any ilk, that points to it and gives the “we’re fFd up we need to fix you bs” better STFU.

  6. Even the perps get it “better to be caught with, than without [a gun]”. Because no one can protect you on an individual level, and after the fact only matters if you are alive.

  7. I amend my previous comment to say that it is SOLELY a problem for the United States of America to fix.

    Maybe Chitcago is just a diversion. . .
    The UN can’t do World domination by 2030 if individuals can own guns to establish a new guard for their security. But they can’t let sh_t like in Chitcago run rampant in other parts of the world (as an impetus for others [in the world?] to “step in and do something”) if they run hard-at Chitcago and actually manage to ‘fix’ it.

    S T O P

    H I L L A R Y

    AND EVICT THE U.N.
    https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/21252030%20Agenda%20for%20Sustainable%20Development%20web.pdf

  8. Prosecuting and imprisoning illegal firearms possession in Chicago, would affect increased numbers of Black and Hispanic men. The Democrats won’t do it (because it “looks” overtly racist). Illegal gun dealers claim it is much “easier” and “safer” to traffic in firearms than drugs, and nearly as profitable. “Easier” because guns can be bought with straw buyers in States with unrestricted private sales of firearms “no questions [seriously] asked”. “Safer” because guns can be transported hidden in common automobiles with prearranged selling appointments with prospective buyers in fairly secure locations, and the risk of capture and prosecution is low.

    All this because Chicago’s oppressive “gun control” laws and the clustering of Blacks and Hispanics in urban communities plagued by a host of inequalities cause those imprisoned Americans (noting NOT all are legal residents in the US, but MANY are) to view firearms as a “must have” commodity in order to deal with and survive the challenges they face 7X24X365 year-after-year.
    “A defendant in a federal gun case put it this way: “People would rather get caught with a gun than without it.” “ quoted from the linked Chicago Sun Times article. {Which is an interesting read.}

    In short, all this comes down to Democrat-engineered systemic racism. THAT is the “cultural thing” we need to “overcome”, “Anonymous ATF agent”.

  9. Yes. But no. But….

    Why do we have extra laws regarding violence with specific tool? If robbing a bank is illegal why do you need extra anything because the robbers used a gun? If murder is illegal why do you need extra laws that say murder with a gun is illegaler?

    Same with sentencing standards…. Why is robbing a gas station going to get you five years but using a gun to rob a gas station going to get you fifteen years? Is robbery with a bat any less of a robbery?

    • In most cases a bat or a gun is charged he same. Most of the time the perpetrator already has prior convictions, so they get slapped with a posesion of a firearm.

      • Also, lets not kid ourselves, guns may not kill people, but they make it a hell of a lot easier. They make an armed robbery a hell of a lot more dangerous.

        • And?

          Is murder with a knife any different than murder with a gun? Is the victim not just as dead either way?

  10. It’s all about the coin. Where do you invest for the most return. In Cook County you spend money on civil asset forfeiture. You target vehicles westbound after delivery of drugs to the northeast and flush with cash. No other enforcement has a higher rate of return and funds overtime for LEO’s. If they happen to pull over a gun runner, that a pile of paperwork and no payback.

    That a couple of blacks or hispanics want to cap one another is of no real importance

      • The only one with a good chance to stop it is the intended victim or someone willing to protect him or her. That requires arming the victim or protector.

    • In my opinion, it’s more about prison costs. In Illinois, the average cost per inmate is $38k per year. Consider the 1,300 individuals that the Chicago police superintendent identified as high risk. Incarcerating all of them for an average of 50 years would cost $2.5 billion. Illinois, which is already broke, can’t afford it.

      My own state (Nebraska) isn’t much better. The prison system is overcrowded by 50%. Because of low salaries, it is understaffed and turnover is high. Rather than put in more money, state politicians are looking for ways to imprison fewer offenders. The only good news is that we are “shall issue” for concealed carry permits and the county attorney where I live is very fair about self defense.

  11. Law enforcement “culture?”

    “When I hear the word culture … I release the safety on my Browning.”

    — Hans Johst

    • Good that you quoted Hans Johst….and not Hanns Johst, (two “n”s ) a different person? “When the Nazis achieved power in 1933, Johst wrote the play Schlageter, an expression of Nazi ideology performed on Hitler’s 44th birthday, 20 April 1933, to celebrate his victory. It was a heroic biography of the proto-Nazi martyr Albert Leo Schlageter. The famous line “when I hear the word culture, I reach for my gun”, often associated with Nazi leaders, derives from this play.”

      When I hear the phrase “big-city police culture” I redouble my devotion to the suburbs.

    • And yet, the money quote (via Wikipedia) echoes even some very recent tactics in electoral discussions…..

      “THIEMANN: ………And then, you’re right in the middle of a parley and they say: Hands up! You’re disarmed…, you republican voting swine!—No, let ’em keep their good distance with their whole ideological kettle of fish … I shoot with live ammunition! When I hear the word culture …, I release the safety on my Browning!”

      — Hans Johst’s Nazi Drama Schlageter. Translated with an introduction by Ford B. Parkes-Perret. Akademischer Verlag Hans-Dieter Heinz, Stuttgart, 1984.

  12. Let’s see:
    * Armed robbery ring operated INSIDE the police department.
    * Organized TORTURE ring operated INSIDE the police department.
    * A cop tries to stomp a barmaid to death for not serving him when he’s already drunk, then organizes a wide reaching conspiracy to intimidate the victim, her employer and her coworkers..
    * A cop shoots an unarmed, not detained, non-violent person under a bank of security cameras, lies about it, and not only is never punished, but instead PROMOTED to detective.
    * A cop empties his gun into an incapacitated suspect lying on the ground.
    * Numerous items disappear from “secure” evidence storage.
    * Police engage in a conspiracy to cover up a murder committed by a relative of the mayor.
    * Confidential police information winds up in the hands of people with known gang ties.
    * A police officer supplies gang members with large quantities of ammunition.

    Yeah, I’d say that Chicago police “culture” is just a tad “broken”.

  13. Here is the scenerio, a young man gets arrested in a sting, the police try to get him to turn on some one, he doesn’t, he gets left in jail, gets to court and gets released on OR. He is on the street and the others had priors and did not get releases. That kid is a target, he needs protection.

    He does need to stay under the radar, but you know someone is going to ask him questions he can’t answer – this guy needs a gun to keep beside him when is is at home – as far as I am concerned, he needs one on his person.
    This happens all of the time, the police think he will come in and spill his guts, but how many times does he get hurt for what the associates might think has happened?

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