The Real Reason Why the FBI Was Created

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Paints a very rosy view of the FBI that has never existed in reality. Also cool shout out to extrajudicial assassinations of those deemed “criminals” in the first minute. J Edgar Hoover really was an exemplary crime-fighter, right? Now they stick to entrapping autistic Muslim teenagers and convincing them to do terrorism to pad their statistics and surveilling nonviolent protestors. Great work, FBI.

👍︎︎ 9 👤︎︎ u/imnotownedimnotowned 📅︎︎ Oct 07 2020 🗫︎ replies

This dude looks like Shaun from The Good Place.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/snitches-and-witches 📅︎︎ Oct 07 2020 🗫︎ replies
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In 1955, United Airlines flight 629 exploded in midair above Colorado, sending debris, engine parts, luggage, and cargo scattering across the ground. All 39 passengers and 5 crew members were killed. FBI investigators collected the evidence and performed background checks on the passengers - slowly putting together a narrative of what had occurred. They identified a man named John Gilbert Graham, who was the life insurance and will beneficiary of one of the women on board the plane... his mother. He held a grudge against her for placing him in an orphanage as a child. Christ-on-a-cracker, well Graham cracker, you could have just slipped arsenic in her tea. When the FBI searched his property they discovered bomb-making parts identical to those found in the wreckage. Shockingly, no law at the time existed for blowing up an aeroplane full of people, so Graham was charged with the single premeditated murder of his mother, despite causing the deaths of 43 other people. He was found guilty and executed soon after. For the last 100 years, the FBI has hunted some of the most dangerous criminals on the planet. Thieves, serial killers, gangsters, and terrorists have all found themselves in the crosshairs of America’s finest FBI agents. These days, the FBI employs roughly 35,000 people across 55 field offices in the US, and one in Puerto Rico. Aside from the Special Agents -which Hollywood has shown us in everything from Silence of the Lambs to Die Hard- the FBI employs scientists, intelligence analysts, support professionals, information technology experts, and many more… all of whom come together for one reason and one reason only: to hunt down criminals and bring them to justice. But impressive as this 35,000-strong army of seasoned manhunters is today, there was a time not so long ago when nothing like the FBI even existed. In 1908, Attorney General Charles Bonaparte met President Theodore Roosevelt at a Civil Service reform meeting in Baltimore in what was a very different USA to the one we know today. Innovations like the railroad had helped the rapid spread of people throughout the country during the nineteenth century, supporting a population explosion. And it wasn’t only the nation’s cities that were mushrooming - the crime rate was, too. But at the time, there was almost no way to enforce the law on such a grand scale, with most police forces focusing at the community, or sometimes state-level. At that meeting in Baltimore, President Roosevelt instructed Charles Bonaparte - who bore a striking resemblance to Poirot and was, randomly enough, the great nephew of French general and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte - to change all that. As progressives, the two men were united by their politics and the belief that ability, rather than political connections, should be the deciding factor in the recruitment of law enforcement personnel. Such was their dedication to the ideal of a true meritocracy that after Roosevelt boasted he had dished out border patrol jobs to candidates with the best marksmanship rather than the most influential mates, Bonaparte responded - jokingly, I hope - by suggesting Roosevelt should instead have had his candidates shoot at each other and given the jobs to the survivors. Under Roosevelt’s authority, on 26th July 1908 Bonaparte formed a corps of special agents that would soon be known as the Bureau of Investigation. Led by Chief Examiner Stanley Finch, the Bureau’s first ever director, this team of just 34 people were the pioneers of what would go on to become the FBI we know today. This might not sound like much, but back in 1908, creating an operation like this in America was controversial. Much like today, the US was pretty big on its freedoms and many people didn’t like the idea of an oppressive government ruling across state lines. So introducing an agency of law enforcement experts with a remit to do exactly that wasn’t met with cheers and applause - and many citizens weren’t cooperative with investigations. In those early days, the Bureau of Investigation primarily spent its time dealing with civil rights cases including antitrust, land fraud, banking fraud, copyright violations, and forced labor, as well as the odd national security threat. . But when it was asked to take the investigative lead on the newly-passed Mann Act, also known as the White Slave Traffic Act, its power and influence began to grow… Which was lucky, because the coming years were going to present the young agency with one hell of a challenge. In many ways, the Bureau was formed at just the right time. In 1908, a nine year old kid by the name of Alphonso Capone was already making a name for himself on the streets of Brooklyn; John Dillenger, just five at the time, was living his best life on his parents’ farm in Indiana, and Dillinger’s future partner in crime - literally - Lester Joseph Gillis, though you probably know him by his nickname, Baby Face Nelson - would be born within the year. Thanks in no small part to that motley crew, 1921 to 1933 were years so rife with gangsters and flagrant disregard for Prohibition, which had kicked in in 1920, that they’re often called The “Lawless Years.” And, although the Bureau had swollen to some 300 agents and an additional 300 support agents off the back of some early successes, they would have to get creative if they were going to prevail in the war on crime. And get creative they did. Al Capone, all grown up and now sporting the catchy nickname ‘Scarface’ had reigned supreme at the head of the “Chicago outfit” for 7 years when he had 7 members of rival North Side gang executed by firing squad on Valentine’s Day in 1929. The old romantic. But Capone was a smart man, and though it was the worst kept secret in Chicago that he was behind the hit, there was little evidence on which to indict him. Capone did end up in the slammer later that year when he was caught carrying a concealed deadly weapon - but he was back out on the streets again within 9 months thanks to - you really can’t make this stuff up - good behaviour. Unsurprisingly, the Bureau were less than satisfied with this outcome, and determined to nail their man they opened an investigation against him. In the end, they got him on tax evasion of all things. Because yes, believe it or not illegally earned income is subject to income tax in the US. It just goes to show, you can have people brutally murdered by firing squad… But don’t you dare try and cheat the IRS. Another big scalp came when the FBI took on the Klu Klux Klan. After falling into relative obscurity towards the end of the nineteenth century, the bedsheet-wearing racists were enjoying something of a resurgence by the nineteen twenties. Under the guiding hand of Edward Young Clarke, the Klan were once again rising to prominence, boasting one million new members. For his efforts, Clarke was granted the title “Imperial Kleagle,” a senior position in the Klan but not quite a Grand Wizard. Apparently looking like a bunch of kids dressing up for halloween wasn’t enough for these guys - they had to give themselves dungeons and dragons nicknames as well. Despite the cross-burnings, murders, and lynchings, the Bureau wasn't able to investigate Clarke, since none of the laws he was breaking were federal. That is, until some enterprising young agent had an idea. You see, Clarke had been doing very well out of the huge number of new initiates joining the Klan, personally profiting from 80% of every 10 dollar membership fee. With his pockets full of cash - wait, do bed sheets have pockets? With his... pillowcases?... full of cash, he did what so many rich men in positions of power had done before - he got himself a mistress. But when he took said strumpet on a jaunt over state lines, the Bureau realised they had him in violation of the Mann act. Because, hey, feel free to recruit people to your racist organisation, but don’t you dare try and get laid on a dirty weekend away with your side chick. On May 10th, 1924, the Bureau appointed a new head - a man by the name of John Edgar Hoover. Like his predecessors, Hoover dreamed of making the Bureau a shining example of a meritocracy. He immediately fired agents he believed were underqualified, and only promoted the most effective to senior positions. He implemented regular office inspections to keep his men on their toes, , and rigorous training courses were introduced for new agents. An early success of this new regime came when Hoover established the Bureau’s identification division, with the aim of better keeping track of criminals. At the time,the majority of fingerprint records were stored locally from city to city, and, astonishingly, the first use of a centralised system was housed in a prison and staffed by convicts. Which was about as good an idea as building a jelly bean factory in an obesity clinic. In 1926, Hoover had the collection moved to Washington under Bureau administration, and soon after, other agencies began supplying their data. A few years later in 1929, the American stock market went, as we say in the UK, tits up. Like many catastrophes, the Great Depression proved to be fertile ground in which criminals thrived.. One of them, John Dillinger, had swapped milking cows on his parent’s farm in Indiana for something a little more exciting - bank robbery. And he wasn’t emptying vaults, Dillinger and his gang took time off to murder people and stage jailbreaks for their incarcerated pals.Dillinger was seen as a Robin Hood-type hero by some, and when he was shot and killed by the Bureau’s agents, his legend was, if anything, bolstered. But so was the Bureau’s. Thanks to stopping Dillinger and others like him, the organisation became a household name for the first time, and it’s agents began appearing in popular culture. To capitalise on this newfound prestige, in 1935, Hoover felt like it was time for a rebrand - he decided the Federal Bureau of Investigation had a certain ring to it. He was right - the FBI is now probably the most famous intelligence agency worldwide. But there was no time for backslapping and soggy biscuit, because across the Atlantic, an angry Austrian named Adolf Hitler had recently risen to power. As World War II broke out across Europe, the United States remained neutral. But a similar brand of fascism to that which had taken root in Hitler’s Germany found itself at home in a depression-stricken America. There was increased racial and labour unrest and the American Communist Party saw its influence grow. Frightened by the potential for subversion on a mass scale, in 1939 a Presidential direction was signed that permitted the FBI to investigate political agitators. As the war escalated, the FBI’s role expanded to track down any “potentially dangerous” citizens with antecedents from Axis nations - that is, people of German, Italian, or Japanese heritage. After Pearl Harbour was attacked, FBI agents rounded up over 110,000 Japanese Americans and held them as prisoners of war - all under the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In June 1942, two German submarines covertly deposited agents on US soil. Evading the coast guard, they made their way inland and began to blend in with the locals. But one of the agents, a man named George Dasch, grew so terrified of capture that he turned himself in to the FBI, passing on information that led to the capture of the rest of the agents while he was at it. The prisoners were tried shortly afterwards, and those that were uncooperative were executed. The FBI’s swift work in this case and others like it helped to bolster American confidence in their ability even further, and bBy the end of 1943, the FBI’s numbers had swelled to over 13,000 employees. The 1960s were a particularly turbulent time for the FBI, and the United States in general. President Kennedy was assassinated, crime was on the rise, and violence against the establishment was becoming ever more common. The Vietnam war was met with widespread protest, and not just in the form of peace signs. In 18 months between 1971 and 1972, the FBI recorded 2,500 bombings, almost five per day. The Civil Rights Movement spearheaded by figures like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X was also well underway, and Hoover initiated a secret counterintelligence program to spy on and disrupt so-called radical organisations. This program, named COINTELPRO, heavily targeted King and Malcolm X, while in the open, Hoover criticised the new emerging forms of protest used by the civil rights movement and others as “a conspiracy reflected by questionable moods and attitudes, by unrestrained individualism, by nonconformism in dress and speech, even by obscene language, rather than by formal membership in specific organizations.” So, in other words, if you weren’t boring, you were a commie. Of course, it wasn’t until 2015 when we finally discovered the link between vibrant hair dye and communism – if only Hoover would have known he could have saved himself a buck or two. This period also saw the FBI encounter a whole host of bizarre new cases that would test their agents to their limits. In 1962, three men mysteriously vanished from Alcatraz prison - a case that remains unsolved to this day. In 1968, the serial killer known as Zodiac arrived on the scene and taunted the authorities and media with cryptic messages and grisly murders. On December 8th, 1963, three men kidnapped Frank Sinatra junior, son of the legendary singer and actor, holding him ransom in the hope of making some cash out of ol’ blue eyes’ himself.. The kidnappers were stopped by police while Sinatra junior was stuffed in the trunk, but they managed to bluff their way back to their hideout. Frank senior coughed up and paid the ransom, but the kidnappers were caught by FBI agents soon afterwards and most of the cash was recovered. The 70s and 80s saw the FBI establish new national priorities: foreign counterintelligence, organised crime,white-collar crime and counterterrorism. The last of which was about to become the priority number one, when a homemade explosive was detonated at Chicago university… The first attack in what would become a 17-year reign of terror perpetrated by the man known as the Unabomber. But more on him later… One of the strangest cases of the 70s was that of student Patty Hearst, who was kidnapped in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation army - which sounds like a political group from Monty Python’s the Life of Brian, but was actually a terrorist group seeking all-out war against the US capitalist state. But things got a little weird when footage emerged of Hearst swearing allegiance to the very Symbionese Liberation Army she had been abducted by, and they got weirder still when she was seen robbing a bank later that year weilding an M1 carbine. By all accounts, it seemed like she’d been working with the People’s Symbionese Front – I mean Symbionese Liberation Army – all along. The FBI tracked the SLA to a warehouse where a massive shootout occurred and, when the safe house caught fire, 6 SLA members were burned alive…. But Hearst wasn’t among them. She had escaped, but the FBI was hot on her tail. On September 18th, 1975 she was caught and charged with robbery. During her trial, the defence claimed she had been brainwashed, referring to her as a ‘low-IQ zombie’, but the jury found her guilty all the same, sentencing her to 35 years in prison, later reduced to 7. She was later pardoned by President Clinton – but then the philanderer did have a penchant for pardoning terrorists, especially comunist terrorists, he granted so many grot bags and bombers clemency it became a scandal called Pardongate. During the 1980s, against a backdrop of repeated bombings by the Unabomber, the illegal drug trade was on the rise and the FBI was awarded joint jurisdiction with the DEA over narcotics-related crimes. Concurrent to this, the FBI was growing more sophisticated in its forensic methods, with breakthroughs in DNA technology helping to reliably identify or rule out suspects. This in turn created a new DNA index -similar to the fingerprint index- which helped keep track of dangerous suspects. Despite the technological breakthroughs, the FBI was still unable to catch the Unabomber, a failing that was widely condemned in the media, as was a failed raid of a religious sect in Waco Texas that led to 80 people, including children, being burned alive. By the time the 90s came around, international crime was becoming a serious business and the FBI director at the time, Louis Freeh, even travelled to Sicily in 1993 and publicly compelled the Sicilian people to break free of the mafia's grip. All while the mob watched from the crowd. The 90s was also when the FBI finally managed to gain some traction with the Unabomber case... Between 1978 and 1995 the Unabomber had carried out a series of bombing attacks, killing 3 people and injuring 23 others. A 150-strong task force had been created by the FBI to find him, without success. He left no forensic evidence, created bombs from readily available scrap metal, and chose his victims at random. But his luck was about to change... In 1995 the Unabomber released a 30,000-word manifesto expressing a desire to strike out against modern technology and advocating a return to primitive society and nature. After much deliberation, the FBI released the manifesto to the press in the hopes that someone would recognise the killers' words. And someone did. David Kaczynski contacted the FBI and described how he had a troubled, loner brother named Ted. He described how his brother was something of a genius, taught at the University of California (which had been the target of two bombs), and had since retired to a log cabin in Montana. Providing letters written by his brother Ted, David gave FBI linguistic analysts all the evidence they needed to identify Ted Kaczynski as the Unabomber. On April 3, 1996, The Unabomber Ted Kaczynski was arrested in his cabin. At the scene, a live bomb was found ready for mailing. After 17 years one of the FBI’s most persistent threats had been captured - a result of cutting edge linguistic analysis and hard-won public cooperation. In recent times, the FBI has faced terrorist threats off the back of 9/11 and ISIS, increased cyber-crime, and the mystery of Hilary Clinton's emails. It has also successfully captured 463 of the 494 most wanted fugitives of the noughties As of August 2020, 94% of the most wanted fugitives ever identified have been captured or located. Not bad for a group that started out as a handful of ex-cops.
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Channel: Thoughty2
Views: 552,747
Rating: 4.9296999 out of 5
Keywords: FBI, investigation, federal bureau of investigation, fbi investigation, fbi, fbi documentary, fbi files, true crime, crime documentary, crime stories, crime patrol, the fbi files
Id: rqbHkTokMBs
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 22min 17sec (1337 seconds)
Published: Mon Oct 05 2020
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