Comment by pc86 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pc86 | Hacker News Reader

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You can't seriously be defending the treatment of Malinowski. The agents did not wear body cameras in direct violation of ATF policy. They conducted an early-morning no-knock raid for a search warrant when they knew Malinowski would be there (having cancelled an earlier one because he wasn't home). This wasn't an arrest warrant, it was a search warrant. They covered up the doorbell camera so if he had checked it he wouldn't see the half-dozen police vehicles outside.

They could have done the exact same thing in the middle of the day when nobody was home and everybody would be alive today.

They could have waited until daylight and knocked on the door with their warrant and walked right in.

They could have worn body cameras as ATF policy and common sense demands.

"Arms trafficking" is a funny way to say "buying guns legally and reselling them at gun shows" but let's say every single thing said about him is 100% true. If you think someone is a gun runner why wouldn't you take their house when they're not home to get all the evidence without having to worry about what they're doing? Why wouldn't you arrest him at the airport, where he almost certainly isn't armed, and police presence won't raise any alarms?

> They conducted an early-morning no-knock raid for a search warrant when they knew Malinowski would be there (having cancelled an earlier one because he wasn't home)

Among many other points that are wrong - everyone involved agrees there was plenty of knocking.

> They could have waited until daylight and knocked on the door with their warrant and walked right in.

Search warrants almost always begin at 6am - and when weapons are involved, they almost always execute them soon after.

You are correct - and I was wrong - that it wasn't a no-knock raid. Malinowski's widow said they heard the knocking but no announcements that they were law enforcement. 28 seconds later their door was knocked in with a battering ram. That anyone announced they were law enforcement is disputed; we'd know what really happened but for want of a single body cam (which IMO makes it much more likely there was no announcement whatsoever).

> Search warrants almost always begin at 6am - and when weapons are involved, they almost always execute them soon after.

I'm not making any comment on whether or not this itself is standard practice, but it seems pretty obvious to me that if this raid was conducted 4 hours later Malinowski would be alive today.

Yeah the ATF is a shit show of an agency with a strong history of fucking up in violent and unconstitutional ways - but unfortunately, their search warrant execution and 'raids' are completely standard operating procedure for US police.

It likely could've been resolved if they'd just sent him a letter asking to meet him at the Federal Building but who wants to be a desk jockey when you can play dress up like GI Joe?

Nobody gets promoted by making a phone call and telling their boss that nothing is actually in violation of law.

But kick a door down in your sparkling clean body armor and perp walk some guy who makes a quarter million dollars a year out of his mansion and you're well on your way.

No, I'm not defending it, but this is a ridiculous false equivalence to compare a botched execution of a legally valid search warrant to lawlessly intimidating a whistleblower. (You're also not stating the facts, he clearly bought the guns illegally since he filled out forms promising he wasn't going to resell them.)

Nobody, not even the ATF, is claiming he bought the guns illegally. They're claiming he was illegally "engaged in the business of" dealing weapons because he didn't have an federal firearms license. Prior to 2022 he wouldn't even be on the ATF's radar but "with the principal objective of livelihood and profit" was amended to remove "livelihood."

This is the form you fill out when you purchase a gun[0]. Please let me know where on this form you "promise not to resell" a firearm you purchase.

Straw purchases are illegal. Reselling firearms is not.

[0] https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/4473-part-1-firearms-trans...

Question 8 on the form, “check if any part of this transaction is to facilitate a private party transfer,” is what he lied about. I phrased it loosely.

Question 8, that's filled out by the seller? So the gun store?

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