Wednesday, October 22, 2008

FBI screw ups and abuses

I ran across two rather unflattering stories about the FBI today.  


In a blatant case of PC bending over backwards to a) avoid offending a minority, and probably b) to avoid making Americans suspect Muslims of being unenlightened, the FBI removed the term "honor killing" at the request of "some Muslims [who] have objected to the term ... because they say it attaches a religious motive to a crime, which could lead to discrimination against Muslims."

According to the girls' own family, it was a murder done on a religious motive: Papa killed his daughters for dating non-Muslim boys, and acting "too Western."

Officials stated that the term hadn't been removed for political considerations, but because the term hadn't been legally defined.

The PC Police strike again: as the girls' aunt noted, the FBI will label a suspected hate crime, but not a crime based on different cultural mores.


I have no complaints about FBI agents going undercover to investigate criminal organizations.  I have no sympathy with drug dealers and thieves.  However.  They did, in one instance related to this case, go too far.

They've asked for an injunction to "seize the Mongols' trademarked name ... If the order is approved, any Mongol would no longer be able to wear a jacket or ride a bike with the gang's name. ... 'It would allow law enforcement to seize the leather jackets right off their back.'"

This strikes me as a distinct abuse of the First Amendment: this is denying these individuals their freedoms of speech and free association.  Not only that, but the government seizure of a trademarked name also strikes me as a distinct abuse of property rights, even if that property is intellectual rather than actual.  

In all actuality, the RICO laws used to bust this gang go much farther, and are more prone to abuses, than the Patriot Act.  If a good ACLU lawyer (as in skilled, not character) gets involved, the FBI and government will likely lose their case.

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