The FBI Loses the Public – WSJ

The Nobel laureate novelist V.S. Naipaul spent a lifetime writing about the importance of maintaining a line between civilized life and what he termed the bush. In an interview, he defined the bush as the breakdown of institutions, of the contract between man and man. It is theft, corruption, racist incitement.

The point here is that Naipaul s notion of institutional collapse can happen and at a very high price. In El Salvador, ravaged for years by gangs, the government has restored peace with a police crackdown unimaginable anywhere in the U.S. It has overwhelming public support there.

Institutional disintegration can happen when two sides talk past each other for so long that the original stakes or issues become forgotten. One had the feeling that happened last week between Mr. Wray and his Republican questioners.

He wanted to talk about fentanyl gangs, crimes against children and Chinese cybercriminals. And he should. But he seemed utterly uninterested in the concerns conservatives have about the FBI s involvement in free-speech suppression on social-media platforms, as described in a recent ruling by federal judge Terry Doughty.

Mr. Wray may think the FBI is too big and important to go the way of the disintegrating Los Angeles Police Department. Don t bet on it.

via www.wsj.com

It’s happened alright. And I’m not betting on it.