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Unintended consequences to gun bans

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 10:24 am
by bignflnut
The Baltimore Police Gun Trace Task Force has been found to be filled with corrupt officers who used their positions to intimidate and steal with impunity. Eight members of the "elite" unit have been charged. Six have plead guilty already. It is not hard to understand the temptation faced by the officers. They often dealt in multiple thousands of dollars in cash that would be confiscated or forfeited to the Baltimore government. As members of the "Gun Trace Task Force", they were immune from effective oversight. And they knew it.

SNIP

The money would not be there if the drugs were easily and legally available. The Gun Trace Task force would not be in existence except for the State of Maryland's obsession with disarming its citizens.
He said the officers’ overtime “was given with a wink and a nod, right up the chain of command, as long as we can say you’re getting guns off the streets of Baltimore City.”

One officer testified that the Gun Trace Task Force kept BB guns available to use as throw down guns to justify a shooting if it was necessary.
At Jenkins’ instruction, Ward said, they kept BB guns on hand in case they hit someone or got into a shootout and needed to plant one on someone. He did not say whether that ever occurred.
The corruption and illegal activity spanned many years. People in the black community said "we told you so".

The investigation is far from over. More indictments are likely. It has been alleged that a Baltimore prosecutor tipped of the Gun Trace Task Force they were under investigation by the FBI. The investigation started as an investigation into a drug overdose death.

When many thousands of untraceable dollars are easily available and chances of prosecution are tiny, such corruption is going to continue. This level of corruption may become more difficult with the trend to employ body cameras on officers anytime they are on duty. But if police administrators are part of the corruption, videos can be lost or deleted.
Once we've dispensed with the non-arguments of "one bad task force Apple" and "tinfoil conspiracy", we're left with the realization that the corrupt FBI is "investigating" other corrupt local Law Enforcement. The "progressives" are seeming to side with corruption in the Law Enforcement community, even against their constituencies. The "conservatives" are wincing and reluctant to call out the blue corruption. This can and is happening in America.

Your locality may be "special" in various ways, but the opportunity for this corruption has been nationalized. The rule of law and "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other".

Re: Unintended consequences to gun bans

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 10:58 am
by Brian D.
I'm sure that some (if not many) people who used to watch "The Shield" series thought 'Well, it's entertaining and all, but farfetched.'

This thing in Baltimore is extremely reminiscent of "Vic Mackey" and his crew.