THE MINORITY REPORT

In a disturbing example on just how relentless the expansion of the prison industrial complex has become, the US Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, more commonly known as the ATF, has been engaged heavily in what they refer to as “Home Invasion Stings.”

A home invasion sting works like this: When agents get the name of someone that they think is robbing drug dealers, they send an undercover agent to make contact with the robber. The undercover agent poses as a drug runner, or a security guard, for a big time drug trafficking organization. He presents a scheme to the robber to steal a big drug shipment. The undercover always says that there are more than five kilos involved because that is the amount that triggers mandatory sentences of more than ten years.

When the robber shows up to commit the robbery, he is arrested and charged with various federal crimes including conspiracy to sell the nonexistent cocaine.

These types of stings reflect a shift on law enforcements’ part from solving crimes to arresting those that they think may be criminals. In other words, they are creating crime to prevent crime and since 2003, the ATF use of these home invasion themes has quadrupled.

Besides the obvious issue of entrapment, home invasion themes are problematic on several different levels. For one, the stings give the ATF agents the ability to manipulate sentences however they see fit. If the undercover tells the suspected robber that there is twenty kilos in the drug house, then that’s the amount that they will charged with conspiring to sell.

What’s even more troubling is that in certain instances, the ATF even provided the suspects with the guns to commit the robbery, but the courts still do not consider this entrapment.

According to the government, these things don’t pressure in an innocent person to commit a crime, rather it just gives a person who is predisposed to crime the opportunity to commit one. It begs the question: What is the criteria that the government uses to determine if a person is predisposed to crime?

In one case, ATF informant David Villamonte testified that he targeted a man for a home invasion sting after parking next to the man at a gas station and having a conversation with him about prison tattoos. “By his demeanor, I could tell he was young and that he was involved in the elements,” Villamonte said.

Home invasion stings are just another way for the government to lock up those who it feels is the most expendable members of society: young Black males.

Since day one, Black men from the inner city have been the fuel that keeps the prison industrial complex running. Twenty years ago, the disparity in sentencing laws for crack and powder cocaine was used to fill up America’s prisons with young Black men, most of whom were non-violent low level drug dealers and drug addicts.

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