Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots:
Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis Curley, and Geoff Carter
ABC Television-ABC Photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The New York Times: “Two Men Acquitted of Plotting to Kidnap Michigan Governor in High Profile Case” (April 8.2022)
My Take:
This ain’t your Efrem Zimbalist Jr.’s FBI anymore. Acquittal sounds valid. FBI hired loose cannons to infiltrate Michigan’s (hardly) updated version of Shawano’s (Tigerton), Wisconsin Posse Comitatus of the late 90s.
In case you missed Efrem’s passing, it happened about 5 years ago…ripe old age of 95. A Sunday night, ABC, 7 pm fixture for many of us that understood the immense value of television.
–Dave S.
I don’t know the legal definition of entrapment, but this meets my layperson’s conception of it. A new FBI motto might be, “We may not prevent or even solve crime, but we can imagine and orchestrate it!”
By the way, how does one unremember a name like Efrem Zimbalist Jr.? I have no reason to remember this guy, hardly watched the show, but his name will stick with me until the day I die. RIP EZJ.
MarkO
Don’t get me started about the FBI. Oh wait, too late for that. The FBI should be dismantled, the headquarters torn down, and the earth salted at the site. Yes, the US needs some kind of federal law enforcement agency. We need to deal with domestic and foreign terrorism, corporate malfeasance a la Theranos and Enron, organized crime, racist hate groups, and nationwide cases too big for the states. But that agency is NOT the FBI. They have an unparalleled record of failure.
Without even going back to the J. Edgar Hoover era, which is full of FBI crimes and illegal surveillance, it doesn’t take much effort to compile a greatest hits list. In no particular order, we have:
1. Waco. The FBI goaded Janet Reno into violently and catastrophically ending the Branch Davidian standoff by falsely claiming child abuse by the David Koresh group within the compound.
2. Charleston shootings. The FBI effed up the background check on Dylan Roof. This allowed the convicted crook to obtain the weapon with which he shot 9 members of the black church.
3. Parkland High School. Two tips to the FBI explicitly fingered Nikolas Cruz as a shooting threat. FBI response? Nothing.
4. Pulse nightclub. Omar Mateen was investigated twice by the FBI before he shot up the Orlando gay dance club, killing 49.
5. 9/11. The FBI stepped on it big time. They ignored the tip from the Minnesota field agent regarding the Arab flight student who didn’t want to learn how to land his plane. And they had such a turf war with the CIA that they shared virtually no information.
6. Larry Nasser. The Indianapolis bureau chief sat on the abuse tips about the Olympic gymnasts’ doctor for a YEAR while he tried to land a position with USOC gymnastics.
7. Timothy McVeigh and Oklahoma City. A month prior to McVeigh’s execution, it was determined that the FBI had failed to share 30,000 documents with the defense. This could have thrown out the entire conviction.
8. January 6, 2021. Without the participation of volunteer internet sleuths, the FBI would be nowhere. Tips have poured into the FBI but have been for the most part ignored.
9. January 6, part II. The FBI and other intel agencies ignored multiple screaming alarms warning of the January 6th insurrection. There were intel clearinghouses set up across the nation (12 of them) with the purpose of collating intel from multiple agencies. But the FBI ignored these clearinghouses because they were not internal to the agency.
10. James Comey took it upon himself to torpedo Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid by publicizing the “re-opening” (and near immediate re-closing) of the Hillary email case, right before the 2016 election. To be fair, this one is less a systemic FBI issue than a terrible call by Comey.
You can add your own hits to the list. My understanding is that Congress actually might have taken serious action on the FBI after 9/11 but was dissuaded by the testimony and promises of the chief of the agency at that time. Who was this illustrious titan of government crime fighting? Why none other than Robert Mueller.
–Mark M.
Mark, you didn’t go back as far as COINTELPRO and the covert actions to discredit, silence and kill if necessary multiple Black civil rights leaders. This agency is FUBAR for sure.
MarkO
Hey Bots,
Yeah, the long, distinguished history of the FBI, mythologized with the naked ghost of J. Edgar hovering in the background. If we go all the way back to the days of the Depression outlaws like John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde and the like, we’d probably see questionable methodology there, too—but no one cared, at least no one who had a voice.
I don’t think we should narrow ourselves to looking at the FBI; law enforcement in general has had a less than sterling reputation as of late. From the militarization of police forces to the infiltration of far-right extremists in their ranks to scandals in the Secret Service, CIA, and local police departments, I think there is an epidemic of deficient and corrupt enforcement—and prosecution. How many inmates on Death Row were released because of faulty police work? According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, since 1973, over 156 condemned inmates have been freed. Not all the exonerations were due to shoddy police work, but more than a few were.
Of course, EZJ and Jack Webb and Reed and Malloy and Barney Miller perpetuated the image of the honest good-hearted cop devoted to community service. Of course, Jack Webb’s treatment of any sort of hippie was—even when I was twelve or so—laughable.
Of course, the dozens of police shootings also testify to the rank racism in many law enforcement institutions. I know one thing—even if I’m a senior citizen, I don’t want to tangle with any of these guys.
—Geoff
I was going to expound on some cultural products emanating from FBI history. I really enjoyed both the TV series and the film, The Untouchables. Robert Stack started in the former and Kevin Costner in the latter. In fact, the film was probably my favorite of 1987. Alas, upon a brief googling, it turns out the autobiography of the same name was about Eliot Ness of the Bureau of Prohibition, not the FBI. So the FBI goes back into the category of No Redeeming Value and I have nothing more to say about it.
MarkO
Well, I have to say my favorite make-believe FBI agent was Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs. I guess it’s a little ironic that she and the agency were only able to solve the Buffalo Bill murders with the help of a notorious criminal.
–Geoff