A casual stroll through the dank, subterranean environs of X (formerly Twitter) will quickly acquaint you with a hoard of slime festooned troglodytes who gibber obsessively about the destruction, defunding, and obliteration of the FBI. “An American Stasi!”…The latest incarnation of “Hitler’s SS!” or “Brown Shirts!”…the sodden creatures alternatively mutter and scream, picking at the angry sores of concocted grievances.
The right has its own version of ideological purity. And, make no mistake, the mob will wage siege and clamor for the cancellation of anyone who speaks against the new orthodoxy — “Trump for president,” “abandon Ukraine,” and “destroy the villainous FBI,” to name just a few. The spirit of the censorious left has gained new ground in the precincts of the right. Reason provides no safe harbor. It’s all pitchforks and blazing torches.
Dialogue is impossible with this sort. The ideological right obediently plug their ears and close their eyes, while their brains congeal in a toxic bath of slogans, quips, bromides, and uninformed punditry podcasted by the terabyte. The transformation of many on the right has been breathtaking to witness. And, its becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish their rhetoric from BLM and ANTIFA elements, which they formerly so strenuously denounced. Redirected at the FBI, the same mindless chants for defunding the police now rise in their throats —holy ideolouges, the useful idiots of our nation’s foreign and domestic adversaries.
Last week, the House voted to allocate $300 million to provide a portion of funding for a new FBI headquarters building. Estimates for the entire building project top $3 billion. Seventy Republicans voted to approve the spending measure, sidelining a proposal sponsored by Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to deny funding for the project. Rep. Gaetz took to X and posted, “Those in the J. Edgar Hoover Building should sit in that rat-infested building until they get their act straight.” I think it’s safe to infer that Rep. Gaetz feels that HQ employees deserve to sit in a rat-infested building. The building is, in fact, rat-infested and crumbling. Netting has been installed, covering portions of the facade to prevent chunks of concrete from impacting the sidewalks below.
“Deserve” is an odd notion, when applied to bureaucracy. FBI HQ houses approximately 7,000 employees. Many, such as FBI Police Officers (who are responsible for the physical security of FBI buildings) have nothing to do with the decisions made on the 7th floor that have resulted in acts of politicization and weaponization. There are thousands of support personnel — good, hardworking men and women of all ages and ethnicities who, as Rep. Gaetz states, in tones of righteous indignation, should sit in a rat-infested building until, presumably, they deserve working conditions afforded members of Congress.
Applying the same standard of “deserve” to Congress, why should Democrats and Republicans luxuriate ensconced in marble and mahogany? These are the very individuals who occupy the locus of all that is evil in our country. Do these individuals deserve to haunt the same halls walked by our founding fathers? Should Congress sit in a rat-infested sewer until The Squad gets its act together and repents of their antisemitic rhetoric and overt support of terrorist organizations like Hamas?
Inconveniently for this new crop of ideological conservatives, former President Donald Trump, proposed rebuilding FBI HQ on the same site it currently sits. He proposed relocating approximately 2000 employees to Alabama, where many headquarters elements have already been relocated. In addition, Trump increased budgets across the Intelligence Community, which included the FBI’s budget. Trump championed all this, even in the face of former FBI Director James Comey’s “Russia, Russia, Russia” witch-hunt, and his shameful exoneration of Hillary Clinton. I’d posit that Trump, being in the position to know, clearly understands the irreplaceable and critical role the FBI plays in national security matters, and fully appreciates the need for real and thorough reform.
In addition to the furor over the house’s funding approval, the FBI was criticized for using SWAT elements to effect the arrest of a J6 defendant, Gregory Yetman in Helmetta, New Jersey last week. Yetman is accused of using pepper spray to attack law enforcement at the Capitol. Reportedly, Yetman fled his home, tipped off by USA Today, as FBI agents attempted to serve an arrest warrant.
The FBI has been rightly criticized for its handling of arrestees, especially in the case of Roger Stone. I can see no tactical reason for rousting an elderly gentleman from his home in the wee hours, while presenting the barrel of an M4. As a local deputy sheriff, I effected many felony arrests without ever presenting my firearm.
But, that same experience impels me to view the Helmetta, New Jersey arrest from a very different perspective. If the allegations are true, utilizing pepper spray to incapacitate law enforcement does, potentially, implicate deadly force. For a cop, being blinded or otherwise incapacitated by an assailant exposes his or her firearm to the very real possibility of compromise. With that fact pattern at hand, the utilization of SWAT is easily justified. Regardless of the propensity of ideological conservatives to play bash the FBI at every turn, I’ll choose, in this case, to back my former SWAT brothers.
Does the FBI deserve a new HQ? Well, that’s a stupid question. It’s as stupid as dogwhistling for abolishing the FBI. Why? Because all the serious people with the power to do something are discussing reform. The FBI isn’t going anywhere, so we’d better get down to the work of fixing it, instead of wasting time with podcasting, social media clowns.
The FBI “deserves” a new HQ as much as DOD “deserves” a new weapons system. The real question is a rational one, but answering that question requires nuance, thoughtfulness, and a dispassionate analysis. None of that is fun, and it certainly doesn’t lend itself to “likes” and “reposts.” If we are to reclaim the FBI, we’re going to have to abandon ideology for actionable ideas.
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