After the Department Of Education shotgun fun, I discovered that there are now 90 Federal law enforcement agencies.
Ninety agencies to enforce (with guns) Federal laws.
What are some of the agencies that require armed agents?
National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Institutes of Health
Department of Education
Food and Drug Administration
Department of Labor
Federal Aviation Administration
Department of Veterans Affairs
Library of Congress
Tennessee Valley Authority
Smithsonian Institution
Small Business Administration
Railroad Retirement Board
Office of Personnel Management
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Government Printing Office
General Services Administration
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Amtrak
Environmental Protection Agency
Those are just the ones that I thought were blatantly stupid. Apparently EVERY federal agency has armed agents now. Can you say “Police State”?
What the heck does the Printing office need armed agents for? Does the Railroad retirement board need armed agents to deal with retirees? Does the Library of Congress need agents to collect library fines?
What the hell?
Which one do you think is the most prestigious? Who has the cream of the crop? By which I mean, which one attracts the best people? By which I really mean, how many cop academies do you have to flunk out of to get accepted as an agent for the TVA?
NIST? What, they come for you if you use a non-calibrated ruler?
Sigh… Australia is looking better and better…
A few I can actually understand. The Smithsonian probably needs guards to keep people from trying to make off with some of the art treasures. And Amtrak might need one or two cops on some of their trains, which aren’t always in a good place to just stop and call the local police. (The same might have applied to the FAA, except that air marshals are part of the TSA instead.) I agree, though that most of the others don’t make any sense
Yeah, some of this might just be site security rather than people that come to your house and jack you up. Hell, some of this could be for executive security too. Gotta make sure the proles don’t get close to the elite class.
Old NFO, mate, you don’t want to come down here. I think you got a taste of it on your visit earlier. The cops and feds get to have all the guns, and your average citizen has to fight tooth and nail for even the mildest of boomsticks. Trust me, even if you do have the most insignificant and peculiar government deptartments packing .50 cals and shotguns, at least you have the option of buying a shitload of your own to play with.
(Sorry for spouting off in your comments, Alan. Yeah yeah, I can move, I know).
The Library of Congress does carry some valuable works that people would like to and do occasionally ‘collect’ They have to serve warrants to retrieve the items.
But seriously, NOAA???? What are they afraid some flat earther is gonna raid your local weather service office?
And there are lots of openings in all those departments: http://jobsearch.usajobs.gov/search.aspx?q=police&where=20170&x=0&y=0&brd=3876&vw=b&FedEmp=N&FedPub=Y&pg=1&rad=20&rad_units=miles&re=0
I was a Federal Protective Officer 25 years ago. Was then under General Services Administration and had full police power on all GSA owned and controlled property. Now under TSA (God help them) they have been reduced to “physical security specialists.” Most Federal agencies have law enforcement arms due to:
1) ego and empire building. “I designed the unit patch myself!”
2) budget, US Marshals just don’t have the manpower to support all the demands other agencies would place on it. Of course if all the agencies were to dump their forces and give that money to the Marshals … Never mind, that’s never gonna happen.
3) Disjointed, non-unified, bickering, competitive Federal agencies are a good thing for all citizens.
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“3) Disjointed, non-unified, bickering, competitive Federal agencies are a good thing for all citizens.”
Not really. Two things they all agree on is that they are better than we, and that they should have firearms and we should not.
I would guess most of these are for fraud investigation just like the Dept. of Ed – anytime there’s money involved, there will be fraud. And just like with the DoE, it should be something that gets passed to the FBI or the Marshal Service for investigation. Amtrak security should be under the TSA, just like airlines (it is transportation, after all).
Some I assume are for on-site security in a context that makes sense, like the Smithsonian – they need police powers to make arrests, and the Smithsonian is large enough that it makes more sense to give the security guards police powers than for them to have to call an outside agency every time someone is caught shoplifting from one of the gift shops. It should really be a limited authority, though. Leave embezzlement/fraud/felony type investigations to dedicated law enforcement agencies.
Others, though, have duties I would concede are better handled internally. For instance, NASA deals with a lot of classified projects and hardware (spy satellites, for example). When dealing with classified information, it’s better to limit access to the information, and to keep it within the organization as much as possible.
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