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I'm all for arresting fugitives, but the scope and timing of this operation does make me wonder about teh motives.
So were these arrests set up with the election in mind? And will they have any impact?
Over 1,600 Arrested in Sex Offender Roundup
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 — The Justice Department on Thursday announced the arrests of more than 1,600 fugitive sex offenders as part of a weeklong roundup, the largest number ever arrested in a single operation.
In all, federal, state and local authorities in 24 states east of the Mississippi arrested more than 10,700 fugitives last week, including 140 people wanted on murder warrants, 232 for firearms violations, and 3,600 on drug charges. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales called the group “the worst of the worst,” with particular priority given to capturing unregistered and wanted sex offenders who he said posed a “serious threat to our children.”
Mr. Gonzales said in response to a question at a news conference that there was no political motivation behind the arrests and that the Justice Department “played no role in the timing of this program,” less than a week before the midterm elections.
John Clark, the director of the United States Marshals Service, which coordinated the operation, said that planning for the arrests began months ago “without regard to any political elections coming up.” One factor in the timing, Mr. Clark said, was to move ahead before the “harsh winter weather” hit because officials said that the wanted fugitives would be less likely to congregate outdoors.
Last week’s coordinated arrests, involving an average of 3,000 investigators a day in the 24 states, were the third in a series of fugitive roundups called Operation Falcon, which began last year.
Local and federal authorities routinely execute arrest warrants on fugitives on a daily and weekly basis, but those operations generally occur in much smaller numbers and without a coordinated, nationwide push. The Marshals Service, for instance, arrests about a thousand fugitives in a normal week.
“The truth of the matter is,” Mr. Gonzales said, “we don’t have the level of resources available either at the federal or state/local level to have this kind of committed push all the time.”
The most recent arrests focused in large part on wanted sex offenders, many of whom had failed to comply with the terms of state sex offender registrations. Officials said more than 970 of the 1,659 sex offenders arrested last week had failed to properly register in their states, which is a federal crime under a law enacted this year. Mr. Gonzales has put a premium at the Justice Department on prosecuting child sex offender cases, and he pointed with some satisfaction Thursday to the arrest last week of an unregistered sex offender in Tennessee, Allen Marksberry, who was convicted in 1996 in a sodomy case involving a 7-year-old girl.
Investigators, executing a warrant for a probation violation against Mr. Marksberry, found that he had been babysitting three children, and a search of his home produced a loaded handgun, drugs and child pornography, Mr. Gonzales said. They also found a pair of binoculars in a backyard trailer with “a clear view of a local playground,” he said.
Mr. Marksberry was arrested after a short standoff, Mr. Gonzales said. Several arrests elsewhere produced altercations, including a shootout that led to the killing of a man in Atlanta who was wanted in a drug case, as well as an arrest in northern Florida in which the arresting officers were fired on, officials said. No one was injured in that case.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 — The Justice Department on Thursday announced the arrests of more than 1,600 fugitive sex offenders as part of a weeklong roundup, the largest number ever arrested in a single operation.
In all, federal, state and local authorities in 24 states east of the Mississippi arrested more than 10,700 fugitives last week, including 140 people wanted on murder warrants, 232 for firearms violations, and 3,600 on drug charges. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales called the group “the worst of the worst,” with particular priority given to capturing unregistered and wanted sex offenders who he said posed a “serious threat to our children.”
Mr. Gonzales said in response to a question at a news conference that there was no political motivation behind the arrests and that the Justice Department “played no role in the timing of this program,” less than a week before the midterm elections.
John Clark, the director of the United States Marshals Service, which coordinated the operation, said that planning for the arrests began months ago “without regard to any political elections coming up.” One factor in the timing, Mr. Clark said, was to move ahead before the “harsh winter weather” hit because officials said that the wanted fugitives would be less likely to congregate outdoors.
Last week’s coordinated arrests, involving an average of 3,000 investigators a day in the 24 states, were the third in a series of fugitive roundups called Operation Falcon, which began last year.
Local and federal authorities routinely execute arrest warrants on fugitives on a daily and weekly basis, but those operations generally occur in much smaller numbers and without a coordinated, nationwide push. The Marshals Service, for instance, arrests about a thousand fugitives in a normal week.
“The truth of the matter is,” Mr. Gonzales said, “we don’t have the level of resources available either at the federal or state/local level to have this kind of committed push all the time.”
The most recent arrests focused in large part on wanted sex offenders, many of whom had failed to comply with the terms of state sex offender registrations. Officials said more than 970 of the 1,659 sex offenders arrested last week had failed to properly register in their states, which is a federal crime under a law enacted this year. Mr. Gonzales has put a premium at the Justice Department on prosecuting child sex offender cases, and he pointed with some satisfaction Thursday to the arrest last week of an unregistered sex offender in Tennessee, Allen Marksberry, who was convicted in 1996 in a sodomy case involving a 7-year-old girl.
Investigators, executing a warrant for a probation violation against Mr. Marksberry, found that he had been babysitting three children, and a search of his home produced a loaded handgun, drugs and child pornography, Mr. Gonzales said. They also found a pair of binoculars in a backyard trailer with “a clear view of a local playground,” he said.
Mr. Marksberry was arrested after a short standoff, Mr. Gonzales said. Several arrests elsewhere produced altercations, including a shootout that led to the killing of a man in Atlanta who was wanted in a drug case, as well as an arrest in northern Florida in which the arresting officers were fired on, officials said. No one was injured in that case.
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