A very disturbing and disgusting report has recently come out, exposing the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) of all sorts of dirty tricks and much worse.
There's a lot to get into here, and the ATF scandal is nation-wide. But first, let's focus on Portland. One case of the ATF's dealings in Portland has been reported in a Willamette Week article. According to it, here in Portland, OR, in 2010 the ATF rented out a storefront under fraudulent pretenses, and set up a phony business called Squid's Smoke Shop, located on NE 172nd Ave. The shop was a front for a rogue sting dubbed "Operation Kraken", apparently meant to round up firearms from the street (so they claim).
They used a mentally disabled 19 year old man as a ruse in this phony sting operation. The young man, identified as Aaron Key, was first profiled and targeted by rogue/criminal ATF agents during this time. Aaron Key was living with his grandmother in 2010. He has been reported as possessing an IQ of 56 - rendering him borderline retarded. ATF agents (unidentified to date) posing as employees lured people into the shop, which reportedly sold drug paraphernalia and "hip-hop" clothing.
Eventually, the agents would hoodwink Key and a friend of his - Marquis Glover, also 19 - into getting "blunt-smoking giant squid" tattoos on their necks. The teens were even paid $150 a piece to have it done. It would be months before Key and Glover both realized that they were easy marks for a rogue ATF sting... when they were arrested on trumped-up federal charges. A federal judge has since ordered ATF to pay for the removal of the tattoos.
As to the tactic of conning two teens (one of whom is mildly retarded) into getting humiliating tattoos and just how it would serve well for a sting meant to capture illegal guns... no proper explanation has yet been given.
Far from netting dangerous and savvy criminals, Portland ATF were more successful at providing an afternoon hang-out for teenagers and petty pissant hoodlums - even setting up an Xbox console for kids to play.
Convenient, since the rogue ATF operation was located directly across the street from H.B. Lee middle school. However, ATF spin-agent Ben Ziesemer (who also posed as the shop's owner, calling himself "Squid") claimed that the placement of the operation directly across from a school was an "accident". An outrageous LIE, to be sure. Ziesemer claims that when he and other agents toured the property, they had entered through a different door and did not realize the school was there. Parents with children who attended H.B. Lee during that time were certainly not pleased:
"James Shanks, 54, who has lived in the area for nearly five years and had two sons attending Lee Middle School at the time, was not happy to learn the ATF set up a gun- and drug-buying operation nearby. "I think it is OK to do it, but did they have to put it there? Couldn't they find somewhere else?" he said. "It's too close to the school. When you have kids around guns, anything can happen."
Store front where rogue ATF set up "Operation Kraken", across from middle school.
http://12160.info/forum/topics/a-new-low-for-the-atf-a-gun-sting-operation-against-the-mentally
This was a particularly callus move on the ATF's part, since committing crimes within 1000 feet of a school tends to leverage additional prison time and other enhanced penalties. Of course, if anyone else were to commit a crime near a school, they would never ever be allowed the excuse of, "they didn't know it was there". Needless to mention, cops and rogue govt. agents who create and facilitate crime within 1000 ft. of a school are *exempt from any and all prosecution. Our state of affairs...
In addition to committing crimes and possessing weapons near schools full of children, another thing average citizens DON'T get to do is trash the property they rent and get away with it. Yet, this was exactly what the sloppy agents did to the storefront they rented for their sting in 2010. Jackie Greenfield is a leasing agent who had been approached by ATF to obtain the storefront. She had no idea she was renting to ATF/govt. agents at that time. She only found out in media reports about the sting operation, which had just concluded. But the agents had long since vacated by then. Both Greenfield and the building's landlord, Jan Gilbertson, discovered that the agents had left piles of rubbish throughout several rooms, cut away sections of walls to build secret rooms, and tore out lighting fixtures. Gilbertson also reported to local T.V. station KATU that severe damage was caused to a newly remodeled $30,000 roof. The security deposit paid did not begin to cover the tens of thousands in damage left behind. ATF refused to reimburse Greenfield and Gilbertson.
"They know what they're doing when they do it and not telling you anything and then they disappear. It's not like they come back and fix it," she said. "It is the U.S. government. It's real difficult to figure that all out. What do you do? ... It ended up being a real bad situation for us."
- Quote from landlord Jan Gilbertson.
Local ATF scum Ben Ziesemer claimed that his agency could find no other location suitable for their operation that provided a month-to-month rental option. HOWEVER, Greenfield says they signed a ONE-YEAR lease. Yet another LIE.
Leasing agent Jackie Greenfield, left to clean up after (and pay for) Sloppy ATF thugs.
One of the trash-filled rooms left behind by ATF pigs.
Setting up retarded people, manufacturing crime, and creating a play-pen for armed criminals, while endangering the safety of children - ALL in a days' work for the ATF!
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