Comments on this article are a mixed bag. I tend to think the FBI dropped the ball when it had members of the Phelps family invited to Quantico. What a waste of taxpayer’s money, that those who tell us the country is doomed for its tolerance of homosexuality get to train on the country’s dime.
But at least it sounds as if they won’t be going back again.
The article’s ambiguous - did the WBC people get trained in something, or were they involved in some other way? 'Cause if they were asked to participate in a seminar dealing with a topic like “batshit crazy religious kooks and how we want our agents to handle people like them” then I don’t think that’s actually a terrible idea.
The FBI’s reasoning makes sense. They want to train their agents to be able to deal with people who they may want to bash their heads in, and I can think of no better people than the WBC yahoos. And the WBC people didn’t even know why they were invited.
Yep. I have no problem with this. They were not telling the agents “this is how you should act” or “think like these people.” It was to familiarize the agents with the thinking of people with extreme opinions. In fact, I would be happy if they went further. Let the agents hear from extremists and criminals of all types. No harm can be done by letting future FBI agents hear first hand the thoughts of the kind of people they may be investigating.
I heard about this on NPR - according to their reporter, the FBI had invited the WBC as part of domestic terrorism training for agents (but didn’t disclose this to the WBC representatives). The WBC guy that the NPR reporter interviewed said that he was asked questions like “What will your congregations do when they’re ordered by some person of authority to act with violence against fellow Americans?” by the FBI.
If what I heard on NPR is true - the domestic terrorism training bit - it makes perfect sense to me. The WBC is truly fringe, and I (and I think, most reasonable people) can easily see them incited to violence by their leaders. And I can also easily see the FBI not telling the WBC (or similar groups) why they’re being invited - who would accept?