Yes. Us.
Lots of people want to attack things with guns. How do any of them get stopped? How can we slow up more of them? Let the FBi find them, they probably get reported to the FBI if they worry their neighbors (the aforementioned us).
What does the FBI do with this information? Apparently encourage them. What else could they do?
Anything. Some kind of confinement if they’ve been violent, sure. But maybe some probation with mandated mental health intervention. How to pay for it? Well I see a slice of the FBI budghet that sure appears to be poorly spent on these folks.
How many agents do you think took part in this one man’s down fall. How many different people might it have taken to show him another way? And do those people draw anywhere near the salaries of the agents and their infrastructure.
How do we get there? I don’t know everything. But what the FBI is doing in cases like these IS NOT on the way to there.
We invest in different things if we want different outcomes. We should not invest in further destabilizing someone obviously already marginalized.
ETA: operations like this also radicalize the local community against whatever that man was trying to do for the people he DID feel accepted by. Too bad they were setting him up.
I;d prefer it if the FBI kept closer tabs on the materials needed to MAKE the IED. That’s not exactly common knowledge, or easy to do without help. Maybe kept tabs on the guy and see who he found to help him? Becuase if killing is bad, then the people who make the bombs… they’re the bad guys. Even when it is us.
