JEROME SHARPE

I'm very disturbed by some of the crap I read here. I've never visited the site before today, because although I know ATF management has been a big incompetent, and sometimes corrupt, mess, I also knew some of the people involved with this site to be, shall we say, less than objective. I just want to say, in my one and only appearance here, I recently attended a teleconference of the "Town Hall" meeting in Denver. Contrary to some other folks indications, both the Acting Director and the DD actively solicited questions, and encouraged a "nothing is off the table" environment. They have both come out repeatedly and said that lousy inexperienced supervisors with "poor interpersonal skills" (read: clueless arrogant assholes), have been a huge problem in ATF for years. So I'm not sure where the attitude that these meetings are a farce is coming from. We all came away impressed that these are two sincere, down-to-earth, highly involved and dedicated guys, who know they have a tough job to do but mean to do it. Furthermore, if you look at the personnel actions that have occurred in the last few months, you'll see two things: a number of crappy first line supervisors removed from their positions, (when's the last time you saw that before the current regime took over??) and a number of upper level bosses transferred or "promoted" away from SAC jobs or other Field Ops jobs to positions where they would have no direct impact on street agents. They have also tried to make the Ombudsman's Office an actual working advocate for street agents with real concerns who have been ignored or even abused by their regular chain of command. And finally, we in the SLC office have seen, first hand, the top bosses intervene in a situation that was shaping up to be just another old-school ATF management "blame the victims" whitewash.

Full disclosure: i've known the DD for my whole career and have worked for him (as a street agent) as both an ASAC and SAC, so I'm not objective. But I can tell you unequivocally he is an extremely hard working, experienced, dedicated "street agent" oriented guy, and above all a man of integrity. Pisses me off to see him and Mr. Jones dissed here.

In my 23 years as an agent, I have never had reason to be optimistic about the top ATF management trying to do the right thing. Until now. I believe these guys are actively advocating for better bosses and trying to change the in-bred messed up culture of ATF Supervision, a soup sandwich that's been the norm for years and years. A huge job, admittedly. But they are truly trying to make it happen. Some people here need to give them a chance.

Be Safe,

Jerry Sharpe