It would seem to be basic common sense to realize that if you’re on camera, committing a crime makes you an easy target for law enforcement to go after.
Case in point: there were more “mostly peaceful protests” in Minneapolis, Minnesota recently, as you may know. As part of those riots… er… protests, vehicles that looked like they may have been vehicles used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were targeted, vandalized, broken into and ransacked.
Apparently, ICE uses small white SUVs so that even people who have nothing to do with ICE were targeted for this criminal activity.
In some cases, though, vehicles actually used by federal law enforcement officers were found and ransacked. Some were ICE vehicles. Others were… FBI.
And remember, much of this criminal activity was livestreamed by people using their phones as video devices for those livestreams, making it easier for law enforcement to identify criminals to pick up.
One alleged gang member found this out the hard way. Joseph Mackinnon writes,
During the violent riots, independent journalist Nick Sortor captured damning footage of radicals ransacking and destroying federal vehicles. In one of Sortor’s videos, anti-ICE rioters appear to rip a weapons locker out of a federal vehicle. In another video, radicals appear to successfully break open a different weapons locker and seemingly steal a rifle.
Sortor not only managed in the second video to get clear images of the suspected rifle thief’s face — a face with a very specific tattoo — but his apparent license plate as well.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday evening that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives working in concert with Justice Department partners captured a known member of the Latin Kings gang who allegedly stole FBI body armor and weaponry. Fox News confirmed that the suspect is 33-year-old Raul Gutierrez.
Oops.
I’m guessing that Gutierrez wasn’t thinking about being on camera when he allegedly stole FBI firearms.
But it’s not just him. I have no doubt that many more criminals who thought that they were untouchable are finding out that they aren’t untouchable.
Especially if they steal firearms owned by the federal government.
