The day after an armed man was killed after earlier attempting to breach the Cincinnati FBI discipline workplace on a reported mission to kill brokers “on sight,” we occurred to be driving by West Virginia and handed an exit for a highway named “Jerry Dove.”
I knew the identify, however couldn’t instantly place it. My spouse Googled: “Jerry Dove was an FBI particular agent…”
I rapidly completed the sentence: “…who was killed with Particular Agent Benjamin P. Grogan in a shootout with closely armed serial robbers close to Miami, Florida, on April 11, 1986, in what grew to become often known as the FBI’s bloodiest day.”
I had coated that case extensively for The Related Press whereas primarily based in Miami.
Some 130-140 rounds had been exchanged in 5 minutes, with 5 brokers additionally wounded earlier than significantly injured agent Edmundo Mireles emptied his service revolver right into a automobile the 2 males with superior firepower had been attempting to flee in. The 2 males had been main secret lives as violent robbers of banks and armored vehicles earlier than Mireles killed them.
Mireles joined a practice of FBI brokers who’ve taken down a few of this nation’s most harmful criminals, going again to early twentieth Century gangsters John Dillinger, “Child Face” Nelson and “Fairly Boy” Floyd.
Dove, 30, of Charleston, West Virginia, and Grogan, 53, of Atlanta, had been added to the FBI’s Wall of Honor for brokers who died in service.
It has grown significantly since, now totaling 88 after two brokers had been killed final 12 months whereas serving search warrants in Dawn, Fla.
The 42-year-old Columbus, Ohio, man killed Aug. 11 by police in southwest Ohio was triggered by the FBI raid Aug. 8 on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Seashore, Fla. − some 60 miles north of the FBI constructing named for Dove and Grogan.
The brokers in Florida had search warrants issued by a federal decide who concluded they’d possible trigger for the search the Justice Division has since mentioned was for prime secret and different delicate paperwork improperly taken from the White Home.
The raid triggered an uproar from Trump and his supporters, and off-the-rails feedback from extremists evaluating brokers to the Nazi Gestapo.
“The FBI has gone rogue,” claimed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia. Greene, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., had been amongst these calling for defunding the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
FBI Director Christopher Wray − who was appointed by Trump − known as the overheated rhetoric “deplorable” and brokers had been warned to step up precautions for his or her private security and their households’.
That was adopted after the Cincinnati FBI constructing incident by a bulletin warning of “unprecedented” ranges of threats towards brokers on a number of social media platforms.
Through the years, the FBI has investigated a wide range of suspected crimes, together with involving radical leftists.
Perhaps Marjorie Taylor Greene is kind of a soul sister with Professor Angela Davis, a Black radical feminist as soon as on the FBI’s “Ten Most Needed” record?
Gangsters don’t like them, both. The critically acclaimed 1997 film “Donnie Brasco” starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino was primarily based on the true story of agent Joseph Pistone, who infiltrated the Bonanno crime household, gathering proof leading to scores of convictions.
Had Pistone been detected by the brutal crime household, he would have absolutely been put to “sleep with the fishes,” seemingly after horrifying torture.
And extra not too long ago in Cincinnati, it was the work of undercover FBI brokers that led to corruption expenses towards three Democratic council members.
Again within the late ‘90s, I used to be teaching youth baseball within the Atlanta space. One participant had the best Dad − he helped me out in follow, he by no means complained or second-guessed me out loud, and he was only a good man.
Additionally, I ultimately realized, he was an FBI agent.
At instances he gave me ideas for information protection. I noticed him exterior the federal courthouse, sporting his swimsuit and sun shades, and giving no signal of recognition.
I assume he has retired by now, however think about in the event you had been an FBI agent in the present day with a younger household and questioning what an extremist cranked up by reckless rhetoric may attempt to do to them?
Everybody, no matter your politics, ought to respect brokers for doing their duties.
Requested in regards to the FBI search, Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., made that time.
“My first response is to face with the women and men of the FBI, who’re merely doing their jobs,” she mentioned Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, spoke out Monday, calling the tried assault on the FBI Cincinnati workplace “very scary.” He mentioned any assault on regulation enforcement “is a horrible, horrible factor and we definitely denounce that kind of exercise.”
However different Ohio “law-and-order” politicians had been, sadly, largely quiet in regards to the threats.
Dan Sewell writes a daily Sunday political column for The Enquirer. He will be reached at his private e mail, dsewellrojos@gmail.com.
This text initially appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Opinion: Blaming, targeting FBI agents is as wrong as it is dangerous
