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Top Ten FBI Stories of the Week

By Jeralyn

The FBI is publishing the top ten stories of the week. Here's the list for the week ending Dec. 5.

Of the ten stories, five pertain to crimes by allegedly crooked cops and politicians; two to white collar bigshots; one to a little white collar guy; and one to a crime by a former government employee.

There's no murders, no big drug dealers or gun offenders other than cops, no child p*rn, cybercrimes or terrorism (other than a reference to the resentencing of a terror suspect for a crime committed years ago.)

There's a message here, I'm just not sure what it is. [More...]

Update: I think I have it. Our biggest crime threat comes from those in a position of public trust: politicians, cops, CEO's of publicly held companies and government employees. It does not come from drug dealers, sex offenders, cybercriminals, bank robbers or street gangs.

The FBI is a law enforcement agency. Its job is to investigate crime and then bring the cases it thinks should be prosecuted to the Justice Department so prosecutors can bring cases to the grand jury, get Indictments, prosecute and obtain convictions.

Our soon-to-be Attorney General, Eric Holder, while promising to be tough on economic crime, has historically been one to focus on drugs, guns, sex offenders, cybercrimes, terrorists and gangs.

If the FBI is right that these are the top ten stories of the week, Holder's Justice Department priorities are destined to be out-of-whack with the true threat: public corruption. Instead of focusing on crimes by the powerless little guys, he should be focusing on crimes by those with government-granted powers. DOJ should make it a priority to go after crooked cops and politicians, CEO's who cheat stockholders and government employees who cheat the public. With the exception of terror cases, it should leave the rest to the states to prosecute.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on December 08, 2008 (boomark / email).