There is a simple solution

It appears the FBI and the ATF can’t seem to play well together:

Agents of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives are feuding over bomb investigations ā€” racing each other to crime scenes, failing to share information and refusing to train together, according to a draft report obtained by The Associated Press.

The report says Justice Department bosses have repeatedly failed to fix the problem.

The Justice Department’s Inspector General, Glenn Fine, has drafted a preliminary report on the two agencies’ repeated squabbles to claim jurisdiction in investigations of explosives incidents across the country ā€” from Times Square in New York City to Arizona and the West Coast.

The most recent documented spat came last December when the FBI protested a local prosecutor’s request to use the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to investigate a blast that killed a local bomb technician in Woodburn, Ore.

FBI and ATF supervisors “tend to deploy their employees to the larger, more sensational explosives incidents, sometimes racing each other to be the first federal agency on the scene and disputing upon arrival which agency should lead the investigation,” according to a draft version of the report.

It seems to me the Justice Department bosses are overlooking the obvious simple solution to the problem. If they would just look in the Constitution they would find they don’t have the authority for either the FBI or the ATF. If they would just disband both organizations and let the state law enforcement organizations handle the issues there wouldn’t be these squabbles between the two illegitimate siblings.

But the Justice Department is just like any other welfare mother and the more children it can bring into the world the more money it can justify taking from the tax payers. It’s time to kick the bums out and demand they make an honest living.

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5 thoughts on “There is a simple solution

  1. “But the Justice Department is just like any other welfare mother and the more children it can bring into the world the more money it can justify taking from the tax payers.”

    That’s gold. You should quote yourself in QOTD.

  2. D.W., It’s more complicated than that:

    Effective January 24, 2003, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) was transferred under the Homeland Security bill to the Department of Justice. The law enforcement functions of ATF under the Department of the Treasury were transferred to the Department of Justice. The tax and trade functions of ATF will remain in the Treasury Department with the new Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

    So the bomb investigations are under DOJ.

    Lyle, I’m a little uncomfortable with that. I occasionally quote myself on something I said a decade ago but not something I said a few days ago. Thanks for the praise however.

  3. I’m not surprised they can’t get along with each other; all too often they can’t get along with anybody else, either. There are reasons so many local and state agencies hate dealing with them.

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