“Sheesh. Do your parents know?”

That said, I know two people–different time zones–who are going through a very rough patch and whose neighbors are federal agents–Secret Service in one case–and could not be more helpful.

Calling it an insurrection changes the definition of the word. What an utter joke.

Then when the crowds began surging in, there was a cadre of men who had positioned themselves at the front of each wave, who exhorted the Hoi Polloi to attack Capital Police force, to ‘reclaim their rights’ and ‘defend the Constitution’ and other provocative and incendiary phrases in an absurdly simplistic – i.e. phoney – Patriotic vein.

Yet – as far as I can tell – none of these bad actors have been identified or targeted by the Feds. The only ones that seem to have been targeted are the ones that became memes, the Joe Sixpack types: Mr. Boots on Pelosi’s desk, Viking Man, the Lectern Carrier, and etc. I’m sure there are probably others that are righteous busts, brawlers in the crowd. But the FBI has never announced that they have arrested, and are prosecuting, the large number of agitators that led these kinds of charges inside the building – as far as I can tell. They stand out from the normal demographic of Trump supporters that wandered around and mostly stayed within the velvet ropes.

The reluctance to release the video evidence is part of this, I believe. They don’t want the public pointing to the bad actors and saying ‘What about this guy?” – potentially leaving their inside informers busted and the shreds of their cases demolished completely.

Note, investigation and patrol on the one hand and prosecution on the other are in separate departments under separate chains of command at the state and local level. We’re having problems with wretched abuses by federal authorities. Why should we wish to enhance a signature feature of federal law enforcement?

Why not rescramble the contents of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security? One department for prosecutions, one for civil defense and disaster relief, one for custody, one for security services on federal property &c, one for roving investigations; and one for patrols, inspections, and miscellany?

And, while were at it, dissolve the hopeless FBI and scarify the federal criminal code.

Agent provocateurs, at least from the 60s on but likely they have been at it since the beginning of the agency.

Have they done good work too? Yes, but the pernicious effects of the bad undermine any and all the good done. Not that they are alone either.

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/475941/

Organizations with less accountability on their power entice the corruptible to join and get the rewards corruption.

I think you misunderstood me.

Note that I didn’t say WHEN this had happened. The Howie Carr link I added, for example, says it happened at least 50 years ago. I also think it happened a long time ago, although I couldn’t say exactly when. I do think it has gotten worse and worse in the last decade or two, however, and during the Trump years.