Court Decision Could Force Changes to ATF’s Undercover Operations
“I come to you as an ATF undercover agent or a confidential informant and I say, ‘Here’s this house which has a lot of drugs in it and boy you can get a lot of these drugs but you need to get guns and you need to get guys together to go rob the house,’” Chicago Kent Law professor and practicing attorney Richard Kling said outside the courtroom on Thursday.
The drug stash house doesn’t exist, however, and the suspects — some with only minor criminal backgrounds — who get caught up in the sting end up charged and convicted of armed robbery and other crimes. Defense attorneys are arguing racial bias and want the indictments of more than 40 defendants tossed. During the hearing, some of the people caught in these stings are watching the proceedings from the courtroom jury box.
The Two-Way Report Details ATF’s Use Of Mentally Disabled In Gun Stings
David Flowers, an African-American who was charged along with his brother, says the ATF definitely lures people in the city’s black neighborhoods.
More: Court Decision Could Force Changes To ATF’s Undercover Operations : NPR