Burn it to the ground, sow salt into that ground, and I assume no one responsible will ever see any punishment. I mean, seriously, given what we know of how J. Edgar Hoover ran things, that organization was not founded for justice, has never operated for justice, and has always been an accomplice of the powerful.
The problem is that we are getting an ever increasing number of Federal policing authorities: FBI, ATF, DEA, Homeland Security (*Hah* that’s an oxymoron), TSA, BLM and who knows who else. Each one a bureaucracy seeking to do what every bureaucracy does — expand like any other fungus. Let’s start be returning authority to the State governments and sending these Federal employees home.
On the other hand, if we keep upping each of these competing agencies powers, eventually they’ll hamstring each other and be so busy in-fighting maybe they’ll leave the rest of us the hell alone?
No such luck. The Joint Task Force system was created to put all Feds on the same team, usually led by the FBI.
State and local cops usually join for the fun of big cases and the allure of federal funding.
The JTF System is an old established product of the American legal system. My brother-in-law worked out of Customs and told me that he used to have a rolodex of people to contact in the various agencies because each of the many organizations had ‘peculiar’ powers established by legal precedent in court cases over the years. If he had a case he knew who to call to get some help… He remarked that folding everything into Homeland Security was playing ‘merry hell with existing precedent’.
Born out of a crisis spawned by the horrid 18th Amendment (since repealed), it seems unclear what the proper role of the FBI should be. Counter-intelligence? Forensic analysis with state-of-the-art tools? Plain old gumshoe detective work across state lines? Except for the former two, I am not convinced everything else couldn’t be handled better by US Marshals. And maybe counter-intelligence better handled by the CIA. That leaves the FBI as a primarily a crime laboratory. Akin to NIST or OSHA or the private UL. I’m okay with that.
The FBI kind of sucks as a crime laboratory as well, or did a few years ago.
If the Republicans take congress next month they ought to start passing budgets piecemeal, rather than one overarching budget. Phase 1–DOJ, FBI, DOE, $0. Petty and spiteful, sure. But really, there’s no hope for most of those, is there?
Clean house from orbit?
It is the only way to be sure.
It’s very concerning when the judiciary and police powers of a country routinely side with one political party and against the other. Add to that the media and educational systems. The latter two attempt to capture the minds of the people and the first two are more of a direct power grab. Tyrants around the world do that sort of thing.
It’s a sad state of affairs when “nuke Washington” starts to sound less than insane.
Apparently it’s race night in Jersey City – and no there’s no racetrack.
I say disarm the lot of them, return them to ‘investigating’. Turn over results to local authorities or US Marshals.
Burn it to the ground, sow salt into that ground, and I assume no one responsible will ever see any punishment. I mean, seriously, given what we know of how J. Edgar Hoover ran things, that organization was not founded for justice, has never operated for justice, and has always been an accomplice of the powerful.
The problem is that we are getting an ever increasing number of Federal policing authorities: FBI, ATF, DEA, Homeland Security (*Hah* that’s an oxymoron), TSA, BLM and who knows who else. Each one a bureaucracy seeking to do what every bureaucracy does — expand like any other fungus. Let’s start be returning authority to the State governments and sending these Federal employees home.
On the other hand, if we keep upping each of these competing agencies powers, eventually they’ll hamstring each other and be so busy in-fighting maybe they’ll leave the rest of us the hell alone?
No such luck. The Joint Task Force system was created to put all Feds on the same team, usually led by the FBI.
State and local cops usually join for the fun of big cases and the allure of federal funding.
The JTF System is an old established product of the American legal system. My brother-in-law worked out of Customs and told me that he used to have a rolodex of people to contact in the various agencies because each of the many organizations had ‘peculiar’ powers established by legal precedent in court cases over the years. If he had a case he knew who to call to get some help… He remarked that folding everything into Homeland Security was playing ‘merry hell with existing precedent’.
Born out of a crisis spawned by the horrid 18th Amendment (since repealed), it seems unclear what the proper role of the FBI should be. Counter-intelligence? Forensic analysis with state-of-the-art tools? Plain old gumshoe detective work across state lines? Except for the former two, I am not convinced everything else couldn’t be handled better by US Marshals. And maybe counter-intelligence better handled by the CIA. That leaves the FBI as a primarily a crime laboratory. Akin to NIST or OSHA or the private UL. I’m okay with that.
The FBI kind of sucks as a crime laboratory as well, or did a few years ago.
If the Republicans take congress next month they ought to start passing budgets piecemeal, rather than one overarching budget. Phase 1–DOJ, FBI, DOE, $0. Petty and spiteful, sure. But really, there’s no hope for most of those, is there?
Clean house from orbit?
It is the only way to be sure.
It’s very concerning when the judiciary and police powers of a country routinely side with one political party and against the other. Add to that the media and educational systems. The latter two attempt to capture the minds of the people and the first two are more of a direct power grab. Tyrants around the world do that sort of thing.
It’s a sad state of affairs when “nuke Washington” starts to sound less than insane.
Apparently it’s race night in Jersey City – and no there’s no racetrack.
I say disarm the lot of them, return them to ‘investigating’. Turn over results to local authorities or US Marshals.
Scully and Mulder never existed.