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| The graduation ceremony for the FBI Citizens Academy takes place at the bureau’s North Chicago Regional Firearms Training Facility, a fun outing where we saw bomb disposal demonstration and the boys got to fire a Thompson submachine gun. |
When the FBI called, I hesitated.
Their request was simple enough. They wanted to bring me into headquarters, for briefings, once a week, for a couple months. Something called the FBI Citizens Academy.
Why me? Agents in the Chicago office were readers. Flattering, though, the way my mind works, I instantly saw that this wasn’t necessarily a compliment — it was entirely possible that my perspective was seen as so woefully ignorant of the world of law enforcement, they felt duty bound to help me get a clue.
Or maybe they just wanted to get me in their clutches. I’d end up handcuffed to a metal chair in a basement, a bright light shining in my face.
One evening a week, for a couple hours, at their Roosevelt Road field office, learning the ins and outs of the department, the problems they face. Battling international terrorism, tracking cybercriminals and bank robbers.
“It sounds like traffic school,” I told my wife.
But I have a personal rule: if you don’t go, you never find out. Plus they would feed us — dinner from a different restaurant each week. Being fed always helps. I signed up.
This was in 2010, so the specific program details do not pop out in mind. There were guest lecturers, short films, tours of their facility. I knew several of the attendees, and the academy was pretty much the entirety of my social life for a while.
What’s strongest is the sense I took away about the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They were good people, working hard, battling bad guys. I’m sure that was the point. Not that the bureau’s often checkered history was whitewashed. Anyone who read Jonathan Eig’s recent Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Martin Luther King knows how the FBI bugged King’s hotel rooms, using the transcripts to try to blackmail him into silence, to urge him to kill himself, generating dirt they fed to his enemies. Knows that the FBI often strayed from protecting America to protecting a narrow right wing racist image of America.
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What does that photo at the top of some kind of machine shop have to do with the local FBI?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't — a scene from Neenah Foundry, by the way. It was late, I was rooting around for a photo, and I thought it was interesting, the small man, the enormous machine.
DeleteI'm always astonished at how filthy yet spotless such machine shops are.
DeleteAn informative column and it's good you got to get up close with the FBI some time back. I think they may be able to weather the fool Patel's years, with time.
ReplyDeleteSo many fools in this administration for the country to weather. I think maybe we should be glad that a lot these Trump appointees do seem to be so foolish: imagine the additional harm if they were highly competent. Hopefully, the electorate will rise-up and the midterms will leave a whole lot more impediments for these damaged souls to navigate.
ReplyDelete2010 was a long time ago. It's clear that much has changed at the FBI in those 16 years. Not the least of which is the appointment and confirmation of a drunken fool as Director. I am sure there are still many fine FBI agents who take their oath to the Constitution seriously. But they are not in charge and they are being ruthlessly winnowed out.
ReplyDeleteAs is the case with most things in my life, I never know how to feel.
ReplyDeleteShould I be sad that there isn't an internal uprising to oust patel? That wouldn't protect good people during good times.
Electing Democrats is important. Electing good democrats is also important, but I believe we need to vote out every republican (center and right) and start anew. This country of ours needs some serious educational help.
How do you get through to people who refuse to read, refuse to accept fact, and live on another planet mentally? You don't just sow a field, you have to tend to it.
@ Double B
DeleteI wish to respectfully respond to your post, but I will first offer the disclaimer that politically I would describe myself as left-of-center, holding positions mostly of a left orientation, but also a few definitely to the right of the spectrum.
Again, respectfully, your statements regarding voting Centrists and Republicans out of office and questioning (and being saddened) by the lack of an internal uprising amongst FBI employees emit a sort of naivete and/or self-absorbed, self-pitying. Do you really expect FBI employees to raise their voices against an unpopular, unqualified, and incompetent CEO any more than those non-unionized personnel in the private sector would against such a similar CEO? As in the private sector, FBI employees no doubt perform their roles day-in and day-out to the best of their abilities and accomplish their mission, waiting for the day that the CEO is ousted by those to whom they are held accountable. Change is inevitable, and people protect themselves and their jobs as best they can, digging their foxhole deep and keeping their heads down in order to survive.
Regarding voting Centrists and qualified Republicans out of office simply because they don't march in lockstep with your beliefs is wish-casting that is as small-minded and petty as those of the extreme far-right, and on the same continuum. There are qualified candidates within these political ideologies, and to oppose them outright without considering their positions on various issues is being a dogmatic idealogue similar to the Tea Party of some years past who rejected all who didn't agree. As with those employees trapped under a bad CEO, certain - and not all - Republican politicians consider their constituents first and do what's necessary to ensure a stream of federal revenue to their state and constituents, and, yes, to ensure job security for themselves as those under Democratic regimes have done as well. How many Democratics went against or outright defied Nancy Pelosi when she was at her peak powers?
Also, regarding Democratic candidates, although you do state that "good" Democratic candidates should be selected, define "good", please. No one is without blemishes, so, what do you find acceptable versus unacceptable in a Democratic candidate? Would your support one with allegations of associations to those espousing anti-semitic beliefs over a moderate Republican or Centrist?
I read your frequent, almost daily, posts and attempt to understand the thinking behind your sometimes steam-of-consicousness writing, but today I was put off by your insulting comments of those who are very well right-of-center. To insult those that don't share your political ideology only strengthens their entrenchment against those left-of-center and doesn't align with your final statement to tend the field. Instead, you wish to apply toxic weed-killer.
Jim,
DeleteI appreciate your response, your candor, and you message. You bring up many good points and as a result have made me think. Thank you.
Regarding my "internal uprising" comments. I thought I had dissuaded my own argument with the idea that it wouldn't protect good people during good times. You are right, I should have been more clear. I wish the "good" people at the FBI would rise up and throw out the bad. In reality, there can be no purge of a system unless it is a full purge. The idea -- and hope -- that the FBI is impartial and functions with a steady hand regardless of who runs them is the only thing that we could hope or ask for. While my hero would throw out patel that doesn't protect my ideal leader from being thrown out by someone else's hero.
Which brings me to the second point you bring up, "the center."
Mr. Patel doesn't become the head of the FBI without 51 votes in the senate. There are 54 republicans in the Senate (if you include Vance as the tie breaking vote). As is the case with nearly every senate vote since 1990 (thanks newt), republicans have never had more defects from the vote than can carry the majority. You are welcome (and i welcome you) to look at the voting records. they speak for themselves.
This action by the right, has effectively killed the center. Look at the confirmation for all of the leadership in trumps administration. With the exception of Rubio, there have been no more than 3 republican defections. That is cowardice. That is disgusting. That is party above country. Especially since it is clear how highly unqualified they have been. Blanche, RFK jr., Mullen, McMann, Noem, Bondi, none of them are either qualified or should be serving. the republican party as a whole bares the blame for that. full stop.
It is for the reason above, I will never be able to support a republican. Now that doesn't mean supporting a democrat that is bad, but it does mean not voting or supporting a republican. I think Graham Platner is a great example of the argument you are trying to employ. Once Mr. Platner's issues came to light, there was a groundswell for him to be removed, rightfully so. What I did not hear in the conversation was the argument that because Platner was bad, Susan Collins deserved the vote.
I fundamentally believe that any democrat is better than even the best republican. I ask you, or anyone, to give me an example of a republican doing the right thing, when it mattered. Show me legislation, acts, any example of a republican doing what is right for the American people. The only thing i can think of is the Epstein files release act, which has yet to be enforced. Again, party lines now. pure cowardice.
Dr. Heather Cox Richardson has some wonderful videos about it. I would suggest listening to them.
https://youtu.be/NDUa3C6nM8U?si=An7tXEXHjF2iyc99
https://youtu.be/ZFHhELyW3Z0?si=BFkOjDCbFahV1x4F
https://youtu.be/9hjEKQoDC_Q?si=3exC0gZKxgniSuLj
https://youtu.be/pZgipS9GdtE?si=v8TN3SL0mHOceUyf
I tried to select some of her talks where she comments specifically on how far to the right the center politically has moved, but I'm sure i haven't done a good enough job.
I have a lot of faith -- probably misplaced faith -- that democrats will not put forth candidates that make it impossible to vote for them -- rapists, anti-Semites, racist, republicans -- but a "good" democrat is one who votes for what is right and good for their constituents. A Jewish member of congress voting against aid to Israel until they stop attacking Gaza is a good democrat. A democrat who is against dark money in politics a good democrat.
Let's not forget, Eric Swawel and Al Franken were kicked out of congress; graham platner dropped out. How many people in the republican party should have done the same but haven't and are still serving...
So I'll stand by my comments. There are no good republicans. They must ALL be voted out.
Well said, Double B.
DeleteWaiting for the election results. How big will the Democratic Party win? What will Patel, Miller, Hegseth, Blanche, Mullin, et al do to discredit or overturn the results?
ReplyDeleteDon't believe they will.
DeleteGet out the vote. Make sure people are registered. Make sure they get to their poling places and vote.
Make sure the trump and gop reich doesn't prevent a free and fair election.
don't trust the polls. VOTE
Would love to have some cool FBI swag — baseball caps and T-shirts and medallions. Swag is great. Would wear them to marches and No Kings protests and delight in all the raised eyebrows. And use the gym bags as beach or travel bags. An FBI gym bag would be great fun as a carry-on at the airport.
ReplyDeleteHave finally reached the stage where ruthless decluttering and downsizing is essential, after being a terrible pack rat all my life. So the very thought of more swag has to be banished from my cabeza. Have always loved and collected swag. That's part of the problem I'm dealing with at the moment. So Chief Wahoo had to go. And he has.
For me, it’s still secretary of “defense.”
ReplyDeleteThat's the official name of the head of the Department of Defense since 1947 & it's still its legal name, no matter what that worthless clown with very low testosterone says it is!He claims he wants no "trannis, beardos or weirdos" in the military, but he is easily Weirdo #1, without any competition for the title!
DeleteOne small nitpick - Trump did not give the money "back to the rich" - it was never theirs in the first place, it was the taxpayers'. And billionaires pay no tax.
ReplyDelete