See if you can detect the common thread of this Department of Justice report:

• ATF: “In November 2009, an ATF Director of Industry Operations (DIO) who holds a Top Secret security clearance was on temporary assignment. According to the IAD report of investigation, the DIO solicited consensual sex with anonymous partners and modified a hotel room door to facilitate sexual play. In addition, the DIO removed smoke detectors from the hotel room and inadvertently caused damage to the hotel’s centralized fire detection system. When the hotel supervisor contacted the local police, the DIO admitted the conduct and told local police this type of conduct was not an isolated incident for him and had occurred in the past. The DIO pled guilty to one count of misdemeanor “fire prevention interference.””
• DEA: “We found that a Regional Director, an Acting Assistant Regional Director (AARD), and a Group Supervisor failed to report through their chain of command or to the DEA OPR repeated allegations of DEA Special Agents (SA) patronizing prostitutes and frequenting a brothel while in an overseas posting, treating these allegations as local management issues. It was also alleged that one of the subjects in the supervisors’ group assaulted a prostitute following a payment dispute.”
• DEA: “During a series of interviews the DEA OPR conducted from 2009 through 2010, former host-country police officers alleged that several DEA agents, consisting of an Assistant Regional Director (ARD), an Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC), six Supervisory Special Agents (SSA), and two line Special Agents formerly assigned to the an overseas office, solicited prostitutes and engaged in other serious misconduct while in the country…. The foreign officer allegedly arranged “sex parties” with prostitutes funded by the local drug cartels for these DEA agents at their government-leased quarters, over a period of several years. …Ultimately, 7 of the 10 agents admitted attending parties with prostitutes while they were stationed. The DEA imposed penalties ranging from a 2-day suspension to a 10-day suspension. One of the line agents was cleared of all wrongdoing.”
• USMS: “A USMS supervisor failed to promptly report allegations that a Deputy U.S. Marshal (DUSM) solicited prostitutes while on an extradition mission in Bangkok, Thailand. According to the case file, the supervisor learned about the allegations when the DUSM’s colleague reported the matter to management. At that time, the supervisor met with the DUSM; the DUSM admitted the misconduct and received an oral admonishment.”

A lot of people are focusing on the fact that the DEA apparently had people going to drug cartel sex parties (and not while undercover, either).  And that is, indeed, appalling.  I’m not really surprised by that, but I am appalled.  But what’s even more appalling is a two-parter: first, that these sorts of things were being treated as, Heaven preserve us, ‘management issues.’ Second… so, basically, a large portion of our various alphabet-soup law enforcement agency apparatus was playing host to a bunch of people who apparenly took their professional cues from Rated-M-for-Mature video games.  Why did the media not pick up on this until the DoJ got around to mentioning it? – Oh, wait, all of this happened during a Democratic administration.

So I guess I’m still not really surprised, or anything.

(Image via Shutterstock)

Moe Lane (crosspost)