The IRS has it's own investigative branch which does conduct searches, seizures and arrests, called IRS-CI (Criminal Investigations) whose Special Agents are GS-1811 criminal investigators. (GS-1811 is the federal job code for investigators, like FBI, ATF, DEA Special Agents, US Postal Inspectors, Some Deputy US Marshals, etc) They often go after violent criminals in organized crime, and many high level drug dealers. Often a part of criminal conspiracies the easiest way to make the case involves tax evasion and other financial crimes. It is not uncommon for IRS-CI Special Agents to serve high risk warrants, especially in connection with Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigations.I'm waiting for the IRS to start raiding people . . .
andI know there was some shuffling recently, but IIRC, the BATFE was/is the enforcement branch of the IRS. How about them apples!
Congress has always granted various agencies law enforcement powers, because they like the laws they pass to actually be followed, and if not the law breakers punished. So ATF, IRS-CI, USSS, ICE (formerly US Customs) and the 70+ other agencies that employ law enforcement officers at the federal level didn't just decide to start performing LE duties, they were given that mandate from Congress. Congress likes to spread around the responsibility, because it makes it easier for them to control what laws get enforement attention, by controlling budgets directly. ATF created as a separate agency from the IRS because Congress wanted to ensure that the various laws it tasked ATF to enforce would not play second fiddle to other laws the IRS had responsibility for enforcing.Somewhere along the way, they became a paramilitary police organization instead of a revenue collection agency.
Right, if you want to criticize and hate the ATF fine, but comparing those folks to the Gestapo is offensive.Originally posted by NIGHTWATCH:
American Gestapo
Right, if you want to criticize and hate the ATF fine, but comparing those folks to the Gestapo is offensive. I've worked with them, and have friends that are in the ATF. They are LE professionals that put dangerous criminals in jail.Originally posted by NIGHTWATCH:
American Gestapo
They are LE professionals that put dangerous criminals in jail.
They are not a threat to freedom.
I don't see any harrassing of law abiding citizens, but I do see professionals running good cases that lead to the prosecution and conviction of violent criminals.