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FWIW, some DDoS attacks against political targets, you could argue, are the 21st century equivalent of a protest sit-in.
by ianhawes 5y ago
FWIW, some DDoS attacks against political targets, you could argue, are the 21st century equivalent of a protest sit-in.
- prepend 5y agoNot when done by the FBI. Unless we think it’s ok for government employees to be paid to sit in for a political protest.
- jessaustin 5y agoEvery large-enough political protest in USA since the creation of FBI has been well-attended either by FBI agents themselves or by CIs in their employ. Infiltration of groups who posed a "threat" to the status quo was one of JEH's priorities. Of course you're right, though. This isn't OK, and on balance FBI is like any other federal TLA. The average citizen will be better off on the day they are disbanded.
- leephillips 5y agoReformed, yes. But disbanded? Who’s going to go after child traffickers crossing state lines? Bank robbers?
- jessaustin 5y agoThis reminds me of the arguments for bank bailouts. There are lots of capable police and investigators in USA. Most of them don't work for FBI. Some of them who do work for FBI would do better work in a better organization. FBI isn't the only authority focused on crime. Other authorities could take over more duties, or new authorities could be created. It's fine for things to change occasionally, especially when toxic organizations are replaced by something better. And please, it's not as though FBI really focuses on the two concerns you highlighted.
- prepend 5y ago> The average citizen will be better off on the day they are disbanded. I’m not sure about this. Can you provide some more info? The FBI isn’t perfect but I don’t think they are a net negative. The FBI does lots of good stuff like investigate Ferguson, MO and other corrupt local police departments.
- jessaustin 5y agoThat investigation was a good thing. Definitely not something that could have been performed by the governments of Ferguson, St Louis County, or Missouri. I'm not convinced that FBI is the only federal body that could have performed that investigation, however. Considering FBI's animus for Black Lives Matter [0] (and, frankly, for every civil rights organization in USA history), it's hard to believe that all of them have their hearts in the right place. [0] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/28/documents-show-us-monitoring-of-black-lives-matter/ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/28/documents-show-us-...
- prepend 5y agoWhat other federal body has jurisdiction? The reason the FBI investigated is because the city, county, and state weren’t. No one is claiming that all of the FBI “have their hearts in the right place.” I’m just refuting your statement that the average person in the US would be better off without them.
- jessaustin 5y agoAny other part of the Justice Dept. could have done it. Perhaps the Civil Rights Division? You can't use the current organizational structure to "refute" anything. I'm proposing changes to that structure.