An Alternate Suggestion

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has introduced S.3304 which would rename a number of Federal buildings. Included in the buildings to be renamed is the ATF Headquarters in Washington, DC.


The LA Times reports:

Congressional legislation has been introduced to name the bureau's D.C. headquarters the "Eliot Ness ATF Building’’ after the agent whose battles with bootleggers and mobsters in Prohibition-era Chicago inspired the book, movie and TV series "The Untouchables.’’

The naming really had nothing to do with the Fast and Furious operation, which has become the subject of a congressional investigation. It's included in a broader bill, introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate committee that oversees federal buildings.

It is reported that Acting Director B. Todd Jones is wholly in favor of this move by Sen. Boxer.

ATF spokesman Drew J. Wade called the proposed name "wholly appropriate and fitting."

The agency's acting director, B. Todd Jones, came to the ATF with a "keen understanding of the bureau's rich history and contributions to public safety and federal law enforcement," he said. "As such, Mr. Jones determined to see the ATF headquarters building named after one of its own."

The dissident agents at CleanUpATF.org don't think too much of this aggrandizing move. They come up with an alternative name in honor of another famous (or infamous) ATF employee.

Many of us disagree. It would be far more fitting, proper and descriptive to name ATF Head quarters the "Russell Vander Werf Building" to memorialize ATF management and commemorate Vander Werf's sterling (all night) performance in Metairie, LA, December, 2009. Not "The Untouchables", but "The Touchables".

Mr. Vander Werf was the ATF manager who was arrested for installing a "glory hole" in the door to his motel room. 

I have an alternate suggestion for Sen. Boxer and Acting Director B. Todd Jones as to names. I think the ATF HQ should be named after another Federal law enforcement officer who lost his life in the course of duty - Brian A. Terry. It would be a constant reminder to all ATF Special Agents, managers, and employees of what happens when they seek to influence gun control policy and then f@%k it up by letting guns walk.