Sun-Times Editorial Board in Support of Federal Criminal Justice Clinic's Stash House Cases

EDITORIAL: Even fighting Capone, feds knew better than to resort to cheap tricks

When federal agents fought crime during Prohibition, they didn’t resort to fantasy. They didn’t make up fake speakeasies, lure petty criminals into robbery conspiracies and charge them with plotting crimes that never happened.

Yet that’s what the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms does with its fake drug stash-house stings, a practice that U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo of Chicago strongly criticized this week in a 73-page ruling that drew the historical parallel to the Eliot Ness era.

Instead of “false alcohol warehouse” tactics, Castillo wrote, agents back then relied on “solid investigative work” that inspired public respect for and cooperation with law enforcement.

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