Unbelievable how Trump is disbanding the FBI. The GOP is at it again. How long must it go on? You right wingers are crazy nuts.
This is something I’ve never understood. Perhaps you can help me out here. Which FBI are we talking about? Is this the same FBI that ignored warnings about the Boston Marathon Bombing Guys because of a typo? Or is this the FBI that routinely scans for information on people’s Cell Phones using Stingray? Or is this the FBI that continues to use Hooveresque style abuses like the Carnivore Email scanning systems?
How about this. Is this the same FBI who put how many people in prison with the Junk Science technique of “lead matching”?
That is the problem with the FBI. When you look at the long history, you inevitably find abuses, violations, and flat assed criminality. Nothing has really changed since the days of Hoover. I mean, you could read the old Fred Cook book “The FBI nobody knows” today, and it would be essentially the same. If the book was written today, it would be the same.
So why now, are so many putting the FBI up on a pedestal? I mean, I get that you hate Trump. Fine. Whatever. But do you have to defend a group of crooks like the FBI to do it? I get the whole enemy of my enemy thing but really, do you realize what happens if you win? The FBI is back to the days of Hoover in full. It is beyond the laws of mere mortals again. It is once again untouchable. Is that really good for any of us? I get that you’re willing to take that chance because you hate Trump, and it looks like they are on your side, but do you really want a group of untouchables able to make or break political figures on a whim?
Any thoughts you have on this would be welcome. Well perhaps other than I am somehow automatically a racist, sexist, homophobic, hate filled, nut just because I don’t think Trump should be skinned alive while being drawn and quartered.
The cops are more crooked than the FBI. Look at the FBI site , they do a lot. A lot of cops in the cities are corrupt and even in small towns.
Regardless of Trump , if you say one thing neg about him, you are out of a job, we are becoming a banana republic.
Is there a difference between a bank robber and a guy who robs a gas station? Both are robbers. Thieves. Arguing that we can’t criticize the FBI because they are less corrupt in your opinion than local cops is ignoring the big point. They are still corrupt by your own admission.
FBI agents have gotten away with murder just like the local cops. FBI agents violate the law with impunity. I did not approve of the FBI under Bush. I did not suddenly approve of them under Obama. I am damn sure not going to become a cheerleader because of Trump.
Either your beliefs are based upon principles or they are worthless. Decide what you believe. Decide what your core beliefs are. Then stand for them. That is always worthy of respect. I may disagree with you on the issues. But arguing that Trump is awful for destroying an admittedly corrupt organization is not a core belief.
Because if the FBI survives this intact they will be unstoppable in the future.
This does not really address the specific example though. Trump has not attacked the FBI because they are corrupt - he has attacked them because of the Russia investigation and the email investigation. Corrupt or not, you would have to establish how those specific examples are corrupt for it to have any meaning.
Obviously you haven’t heard about Lead Matching. This is literally the definition of Junk Science. Yet the FBI used it in convictions for decades. The idea is that every batch of lead from a smelter was a little different. By comparing bullets too mangled to be matched by rifling to a weapon, or when the weapon was not located, they could match it to batches of bullets to show it came from a lot of ammunition in the defendants possession.
The Basis for Compositional Bullet Lead Comparisons, Forensic Science Communications, July 2002
When outside Labs wanted to know how this test was done so they could confirm the findings, the FBI answer told you right away that the entire thing was bullshit. The FBI maintained that only their laboratory could process this kind of evidence, no other scientist on earth could possibly hope to match the lead. That’s right, no metallurgist could tell the difference between lots of lead, or similarities.
Well, finally somebody examined various lots of bullets, from different manufacturers and found that you guessed it, the lead was pretty much the same from one brand of bullet, to the next. Lead was lead.
The FBI didn’t stop the test for another year and then instead of admitting they were lying the whole time, just quietly dropped it. When they were called on it being dropped they admitted that the test was now considered unverifiable. Wow, you think?
For twenty five years the FBI maintained that this test was as good as matching the rifling of a barrel. In fact, since it was done by spectral analyzing the metal, it was even better.
FBI Abandons Controversial Bullet-Matching Technique
Now, if it isn’t corrupt to present evidence for a trial knowing that it is bullshit, what do you call it? I mean, we are talking about agents sworn to tell the truth and all that.
Planting GPS trackers on cars, getting caught, and then demanding the tracker back because it was federal government property. Want the link to that?
Then there was the Bundy Debacle. Yes Cliven and the rest were assholes of unequaled quality. If Hustler Magazine was still around, they would be the assholes of the century. But, that doesn’t mean that the FBI gets to lie about the case, withhold evidence, and do whatever they want. Bundy was found not guilty of everything, because the FBI couldn’t tell the truth if you asked the agent what time it was.
This is not the pinnacle of law enforcement. This is not the supreme investigative agency in the world. This is corruption, lies, obfuscation, and power abuse.
The idea that the FBI may not be corrupt or lying, I’d have a hard time with believing them in anything. Because I’ve watched them vacillate between inept, and flat assed corrupt for my entire life. They are either one or the other in pretty much every case they’re on. But oh my, we’re supposed to support the FBI because we love law and order. But why is it we don’t expect the enforcers of those laws, to actually obey those laws? I mean, rules for thee and not for me is pretty much the definition of hypocrisy isn’t it?