ATF Under Fire for Yet Another Shady Killing of an Obviously Innocent Suspect.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) has been labeled as the most corrupt law enforcement agency within the federal government.
Readers of PoliticalArena may not recall, but during the 70s, 80s, and 90s, the ATF was known for executing search warrants for minor violations that often resulted in the death of the suspect. These were typically no-knock raids based on weakly supported search warrants rather than arrest warrants.
Warrants intended for daytime execution were frequently carried out at night, involving forced entry. This happened because there is no one that would prosecute them.
Organizations such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), Gun Owners of America (GOA), and other civil rights groups have monitored and reported these frequent incidents, prompting Congress to consider significant cuts to the ATF's budget.
To demonstrate the importance of the ATF to Congress, they engaged with corporate media and carried out the Waco siege. This event tragically led to 80 fatalities. The remaining members of the Waco church were cleared of the gravest charges after the jury determined that the ATF had assaulted the church with lethal intent.
Even the hostile L.A. Times had to admit some of the truth:
Defense attorney Terry Kirk sought to make that point in telling reporters outside the courthouse: “The nerve of the federal government to do what they did on Feb. 28, and then come into a courtroom and file a brief saying: ‘Oh, if it’s a federal agent, you don’t have the right of self-defense, you have to take a bullet in the head.’
“Well, the judge didn’t buy it, the American people most assuredly would not have bought it, and that’s the message the jury sent.”
Anaheim resident Ruth Moser, the mother of cult member Sherri Jewell, who died in the fire that ended the 51-day standoff, agreed with defense attorneys’ claims that the Davidians acted in self-defense when they fired at federal agents during the raid.
“Good grief, they’re not to blame,” she said of the cult members. “They’re not the ones to storm themselves and shoot themselves.”
At Waco, an ATF agent told the court in his affidavit he saw upper and lower receivers for AK-47’s for being modified to fully automatic machine guns in order to get the daytime (not no-knock) warrant. AK style rifles do not have upper and lower receivers. The ATF simply lied to the court in order to obtain the warrant, just at the FBI lied repeatedly to the FISA Court in order to get spying warrants against Trump.
[Note: Yours truly reported on the WACO siege as it unfolded and has interviewed numerous surviving church members, along with other key witnesses to the event.]
Well now it has happened again.
Bryan Malinowski was by all accounts a model citizen. He ran the Clinton Airport in Arkansas and earned a salary of $260,000 per year. He was a gun collector and hobbyist. From time to time, he would sell or trade a gun as most hobbyists do.
The ATF, without getting authorization from Congress, has unilaterally been redefining words in the law to turn honest citizens who were always in compliance with the law into accused felons overnight.
Such instances are calling bump stocks “machine guns,” calling pistol arm braces “short-barreled rifles” after the ATF said they were legal for 10 years they now claim arm braces have been unlawful since 1939. The ATF now interprets incidental paperwork violations as “willful criminal violations” in order to strip gun shops of their Federal Firearms License, and the latest, accusing those who trade or sell or gift a gun to someone from time to time is somehow engaged in the “primary occupation of selling guns for profit without a license.”
Says ATF Chief Dettelbach in a video below, “Citizens need to read the ATF’s 500-page brief to understand if they are in violation of our new interpretation…”
The ATF told a judge a story and obtained a search warrant, not an arrest warrant - and proceeded to smash in his door in the middle of the night and when Malinowski came out of his bedroom armed as any rational person would under the circumstances, they shot him in the head, and then proceeded to abuse his wife as you will see in the testimony below.
The ATF disabled at least one camera at the home and in violation of procedure did not use body cameras.
In court where the ATF decided to redefine the terms of the rules passed by Congress has not gone well for them in court. In our view, the ATF made an example of Malinowski because they had to know that their new interpretation of the rules would likely not withstand court scrutiny.
ATF Bureau Chief Steven Dettelbach appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to answer for yet another ATF scandal. Dettelbach used every lawyerly trick to stall and not answer questions. His favorite tactic was to answer a completely different question than the one asked to him by members of the committee.
For example: Are you maintaining an illegal database of firearms purchases and gun owners (and they most certainly do and have been caught doing it before) and his answer would be, “Congress has said that we are not allowed to do that” - but that is not what he was asked.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has a lengthy history of questionable practices and court filings, leading this author to believe that extending the benefit of the doubt to the ATF after years of misconduct is unwise. This skepticism is reflected in the treatment of Dettelbach by numerous Congressional members, who regard him as a hostile witness.
Malinowski’s attorney:
Jim Jordan to Dettelbach, “You have broken your own rules”. “What are you trying to hide?”
Congressman Victoria Spartz to ATF Director Dettelbach - Do you realize how dangerous your changing of definitions has become? This is a must see:
Here is ATF Chief Dettelbach dodging and weaving on the pistol brace issue:
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) on the ATF’s abuse of “no knock” tactics. Dettelbach dodges:
Here is Dettelbach dodging the illegal gun registry question. And notice what he says here, “We do not get records from those gun shops who are still in business,” but they do confiscate the records of gun shops who go out of business, and they put them in the illegal gun registration database.
Matt Gaetz questions Dettelbach after a court said that the ATF change in interpretation of the definitions actually eviscerates the law as passed by Congress:
The entire Dettelbach hearing can be seen HERE.
Great, great Stack, Chuck!! Once again, you bring “just the facts”! I just could not stop thinking of the silly joke that (ahem) Kindergartners used to say, “I know I am but what are you?” (nonsensical gibberish - just like the constant deflection from the actual questioning, in this case).