Whatever else you may say about The Wall Street Journal, you'd be hard pressed to argue it is extremist in any way. That means Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.'s opinion piece with the title "Abolish the FBI" has to be given serious consideration.
Jenkins lists a series of high profile cases in recent years where the FBI has screwed up big time, I remember most of them. However squeaky clean it may have once been, it is certainly not that anymore. Here is Jenkins' conclusion:
By now, after its performance in the 2016 election, the evidence might seem conclusive that the agency is a failed experiment, however able and dedicated many of its agents.
Its culture at the top seems incapable of using the powers entrusted to it with discretion and good judgment or at least without reliable expectation of embarrassment. The agency should be scrapped and something new built to replace it. One possibility is a national investigative corps that would be more directly answerable to the 93 U.S. attorneys who are charged with enforcing federal law in the 50 states.
And Jenkins doesn't even mention the shootouts at Waco or Ruby Ridge.
