Your FBI: Too Many Agents Who Are Bored, Underworked, Frustrated, Yearning for the Excitement. 2 of 2

Yesterday I wrote about how arrests should be done in a civilized society. Today I’ll show how the FBI usually does them. Remember, this could happen to you and it need not. Those in power should treat people like they would like to be treated.

I’ve written before how these Federal Bully Individuals came down to Quincy, MA, with three black vans, a dozen or more SWAT costumed agents, guns showing, rushing in and breaking down an apartment door to arrest a young non-violent  cab driver at five in the morning. I figure those agents thought because he was a Muslim that was all right. Had they waited a couple of hours they could have arrested him quietly as he left his apartment or reached his cab stand. I wondered at the time don’t these agents have anything  else to do? I also wondered at the mentality of the U.S. attorneys who let these things happen.

Put yourself in the position of figuring out how to bring about the arrest of lets say a man who I will call Harold T. Martin, III. Lets suppose he lives with his second wife I’ll call Deborah Vinson in a quiet neighborhood in a small brick and vinyl-sided single family two bedroom bungalow. Assume Deborah works in a crafts store. On Sundays she sometimes gives sermons at a local church in a small commuter town in Maryland.

Let us say Harold is fifty-one years old, a former lieutenant in the U.S. Navy who was honorably discharged after serving his country for ten years. He has degrees in economics and information systems. He is studying part-time for his Ph D. in computer science. He has no known history of violence and does not own a gun. He works each day at Booz Allen doing work for the government on contract involving top-secret matters.

You check him out with the local police. They have no complaints against him. From inquiries in his neighborhood you learn he is cordial, helpful, friendly but quiet, and brainy. No one has any complaints against him. At school he was described as being “thoughtful, sensitive, and dedicated.”

You believe he may have been taking secret materials home. You arrange to get a warrant for his arrest. There is not a scintilla of evidence that any violence would occur during his apprehension. How do you go about arresting him?

How many agents do you involve? Do you arrest him at work, at school, coming from or going to his home, or leaving church on Sunday? Do you arrest him during the week or over the weekend?

I would have had a couple of guys wait for him to leave work at night and take him as he was getting into his car. At the same time I’d have two others at his house telling Deborah they have a warrant and asking her to make herself comfortable there or elsewhere while they searched. Is there something wrong with my plan? Would you do it differently?

Director Comey would apparently think my way of doing it is wrong.

Now here is why it is said the Devil makes work for idle hands. Harold Marin is a real individual and the facts that I set our are what the Federal Bully Individuals had before them. Here is an example of the Devil at work.

On a Saturday afternoon at 2:30 pm on August 27 they blocked off all the street surround Martin’s house. Then we are told that Federal agents dressed in tactical gear and toting drawn rifles were swarming around the small brick and vinyl-sided house. At least two federal vans and more than 20 vehicles shut down access to the area. Murray Bennett walked out on his stoop just in time to see a dozen agents smash through Bennett’s backyard fence. “Get back in the house!” a man in an FBI jacket yelled at him.”

Bennet is 84 years old. He told another paper,“I thought the third world war had started — they came rushing in here. I looked out the door, and the officer told me to get back in the damn house. They didn’t want anyone peeping around. They knocked down his fence and were running around the back.” He would later say over twelve hours later around 3 or 4 in the morning they had set up tables and flood lights and were examining documents they took out of the small two bedroom house.

Other neighbors told of hearing a loud boom that brought them out of their houses. The FBI used some sort of explosive device to knock down the rear fence of Martin’s House. Martin was taken out of his house in a T-shirt and shorts, held on his front lawn for a bit A neighbor said she thought he was going to have a heart attack: “He was so pale in the face after it happened. He obviously was scared to death.”

I suggest these tactics are totally unnecessary in this case. I further suggest something is wrong with the people involved in carrying out the orders to do such vile things to American citizens. As for the charges against him one official said six-weeks after the raid: “We’re struggling to figure him out,”

Maybe they should spend their time trying to figure out what’s wrong with the FBI.

 

 

17 Comments

  1. In the sovok union, the NKVD/KGB used to come in the middle of the night. There were jokes about having one’s bags already packed, and being relieved when the knock was on a neighbor’s door, rather than one’s own.

    One of the laws that was enacted in Ukraine after the fall of the sovok union prohibited middle-of-the-night arrests.

  2. Henry:

    The Philippine connection is intriguing. Do you have more info?

  3. “What difference, at this point, does it make?” – Hillary Rodham Clinton in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

  4. General Cartwright is paying the price for Hillary Clinton’s sins

    The FBI’s handling of the case stands in stark contrast to its treatment of Hillary Clinton and retired General David Petraeus — and it reeks of political considerations.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2016/10/18/general-cartwright-is-paying-the-price-for-hillary-clintons-sins/?utm_term=.f7c4935b076a

    • Henry:

      There is no doubt that Comey made his decision based on Hillary’s position as the Democratic nominee. How could he possibly be the one who deprived her of her chance to win? The burden was too heavy. The result is he has compromised himself and the FBI for the term of years the Clintons hold office since he has shown his fear of them. He should have known better because he was a prosecutor. although perhaps because he was a federal prosecutor he did not understand. Us state guys knew that once you did something like that where you did a “favor” or if you took some money you were forever compromised and the people who you did it for or who gave you the money did not buy the one thing but they bought you. Four years we will have to live with a bought FBI. Not a nice prospect.

  5. There is an insane rush to turn everything into an Auto-da-fé. Entertainment for the masses. Step One is hire Cecil B. DeMille.

    The courts are no different. During the Timothy McVeigh trial for the Oklahoma Bombing I was shocked at the millions spent. I followed it closely for the first two weeks. The first nine days as I recall consisted of a big budget Hollywood film production proving that the bombing occurred. That was not in dispute. A simple agreed upon statement of facts was all that was necessary.

    But the jury was to be inflamed with a judge star struck and glorying in the glow of evening international news coverage day after day after day. A judge with judicial temperament would not have allowed such a Barnum and Bailey act. In my eyes that alone required a mistrial finding.

    A theatrical court system cheapens the participants, attaches importance to criminals and demeans the public. America merited justice by a dignified, rational judicial procedure. It was denied that. Timothy McVeigh was guilty and that guilt warranted a fair trial. He did not get one. Instead there was a grand opera spiked with an orgy of fireworks.

    • What makes you think McVeigh didn’t get a fair trial? What in the proceedings was irrational? Can you point to any procedural errors? How was the trial demeaning? In what way did the prosecution make McVeigh more important than he actually was? Fine points, please.

      • https://www.amazon.com/Others-Timothy-McVeigh-Oklahoma-Conspiracy/dp/1586480987

        Stephen Jones, the chief defense counsel for Timothy McVeigh, the first of two men convicted in the tragic 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, lays out a case that McVeigh and Terry Nichols, also convicted in the bombing, did not act alone. In his attempt to defend McVeigh, Jones traveled the globe to turn up every possible scrap of information that might lead him to the “others unknown” cited by the grand jury that heard evidence in the bombing case. Some of the evidence is compelling, including the severed leg that did not match any of the victims; Jones is convinced it belonged to “John Doe number two,” an unidentified man credited with planting the bomb in the Murrah Office Building. Jones also lays out a very strong argument that Terry Nichols was in touch with Muslim fundamentalist terrorists in the Philippines and that he asked them to help him build a bomb. But Jones’s refusal to break his attorney-client privilege by discussing anything that McVeigh said to him forces the author to walk a tightrope, revealing nothing about his client’s role in the bombing while trying to outline the potential involvement of others.

        Non-conspiracy buffs may find it far-fetched that the United States government would want to cover up information about the possible involvement of Muslim fundamentalists or white supremacists in the bombing, but Jones has two arguments to support the idea. First, he suggests, the government was trying to cover its tracks for not having heeded various danger signs before the bombing took place. In addition, this was too big and too horrible a crime to go unpunished; it had to be closed without question and with no suspects left at large. For those who are persuaded by Jones’s arguments, the chilling question remains: when–and where–will the “others unknown” strike next? –Linda Killian — (May 9, 2001)

        Others Unknown: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy 1st Edition
        by Peter Israel (Author), Stephen Jones (Author)

        • Henry:

          That seems to go along with the government’s policy to quickly identify the culprits and to refuse to go beyond them. Perhaps Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone but J. Edgar Hoover’s decision the next day after the assassination that he did limited the investigation to him. It has always been the policy to quickly reassure the American people that the incident was carried out by a certain person or persons, they have been apprehended, so go back to living without worry. Thanks for the post, interesting.

        • Henry, you beat me to it

          McVeigh’s defense attorney is a demonic publicity hound, and undertook needless trips all over the place in this “defense.” It was simply a money grab.

          He files canned briefs over and over and over again, making all sorts of stupid constitutional arguments.

          http://newsok.com/article/2746689

    • Tadzio:

      Good points on the court system. The idea is to horrify the jurors so that they will be so prejudices that there is no chance of them making other than a finding of guilty.

  6. Matt: you cite good examples of the FBI’s excessive use of force: in Maryland, “more than 20 vehicles” swarm into a peaceful suburb, a dozen rifle-toting agents on foot assault a backyard, breaking down a fence, to arrest one unarmed man threatening no one; in Massachusetts, heavily armed SWAT teams break down doors at 5:00 A.M. to arrest one unarmed man threatening no one. There’s no justification for such tactics.

  7. Final debate tonight…..
    The first two got progressively more laughable……. tonight should be interesting.

    After Trump outright telling Hillary he would have her arrested if elected (a first in presidential debates, I’m sure) last time…..I can’t wait to see what she counters with.

    I hope Trump listens to his advisors.
    His best move is to address the un-defendable comments made to Billy Bush right up front.
    No idea how he’s going to do that…..but the issue is front and center (to the delight of, and according to the plan of Hillary)
    Trump needs to apologize for it (it’s all he can do now) and try to keep attacking Crooked Hillary on the REAL ISSUES that effect the everyday lives of Americans………………….NOT THIS CRAP.

  8. “…breaking down an apartment door to arrest a young non-violent cab driver at five in the morning.”

    Is there no evidence that some terrorist activity (or other suspect action) was in progress, developing or imminent? Any evident connections to ne’er-do-wells? Any odd activity in terms of travel to the Middle East? Nada?

    • GOK:

      The taxi driver was not a criminal. He went to work every day driving a taxi and had no connection with any type of radical or criminal activity. He never left the Quincy and Braintree area for the whole year the FBI tracked him. Nothing prompted the raid other than the need to make a show.