A Tennessee Bill That Aims To Prohibit The FBI From Pulling State Law Enforcement Resources Into Intelligence Operations Targeting Tennesseans They Believe To Be a Threat Due To Conservative Values And Beliefs Was Rolled To Final Senate Judiciary Calendar.
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The Tennessee Conservative [By Kelly M. Jackson] –
This week, a bill that will prohibit the FBI from arbitrarily pulling in local and state law enforcement resources into investigations in Tennessee, unless it is a criminal investigation, was rolled to the final calendar in the state Senate.
SB2804/HB2912 states: “Criminal Offenses – As introduced, reduces the minimum number of criminal investigators from the criminal investigation division of the Tennessee bureau of investigation that must be normally detailed to serve in each grand division of the state from two to one. – Amends TCA Title 38; Title 39 and Title 40.”
The bill is being carried in the House by Representative Todd Warner (R-D92-Chapel Hill) and in the State Senate by Senator Joey Hensley (R-D28-Hohenwald).
The problem, as it has materialized since 2016, is the weaponization of the nation’s top law enforcement apparatuses by what is known as “an “iron triangle” or mutually supportive relationships between bureaucratic agencies, special interest groups, and legislative committees with dominion over particular areas within the government.
According to the website from the grassroots organization, Center for Renewing America, “these actors hang together to thwart outside reformers seeking to alter established policies. These triangles ultimately exist to retain power and promote their members’ predilections irrespective of impact on the general welfare.”
It is these powerful entities that work continuously to ensure that the power structures from which they benefit will not be altered by outside forces such as the citizenry.
This law will ensure that the federal government can only utilize local and state law enforcement resources for criminal cases versus intelligence operations/investigations of those who the federal government may deem as problematic because of their conservative values, their religious beliefs or even their open support of former president and current front runner for the Republican nomination, Donald Trump.
The reason the FBI should only be able to include state and local law enforcement agencies on criminal investigations is explained here, “Law enforcement investigations are linear: an alleged crime occurs, investigators gather facts and evidence, and the offender is prosecuted. Intelligence investigations, by contrast, are circular, for intelligence investigations, success rests in continuation, rather than completion. These cases are solely intended to gather information. Moreover, as more intelligence is gleaned, investigators learn the identities of people tangentially connected with their subject and can initiate additional intelligence investigations of those individuals.”
In other words, at the heart of a criminal/law enforcement investigation is an actual crime. Whereas an intelligence operation targets a person or a group and gathers information, violating citizen’s privacy, until they are able to find a crime with which to charge them.
The best example of this would be the targeting and criminal prosecution of General Mike Flynn in 2017. Flynn was charged with “lying to a federal agent”.
In reality the FBI asked Flynn questions of a relatively banal nature, and when a small insignificant detail contradicted the original answer to the question, it gave the FBI the opportunity to charge Flynn with a “process crime”, or an offense against the “judicial process” , as though Flynn gave the answer he did in order to obstruct justice.
According to our sources, bureaucratic capture, mission creep, and quota systems are creating a perverse incentive structure for the FBI to artificially boost crime and terrorism statistics. The FBI uses arbitrary performance metrics that create incentives for the weaponization of FBI resources. Prioritization of domestic intelligence collection, bureaucratic capture, and anti-conservative and anti-Christian biases are driving the FBI’s present weaponization against the American people. Without significant reforms, the nation will continue to witness this agency unconstitutionally target citizens and trample constitutional rights.
Advocates that believe state and local law enforcement should not be taken advantage of in order to target Tennesseans are asking that the Tennessee General Assembly act to protect their citizens.
The way the new law would work is in the event that a Tennessee agency nominates personnel for federal deputization as task force officers, the nominees are consigned to United States Code Title 18 and Title 21 matters and may only engage in relevant law enforcement activities pertaining to violations of criminal law.
The personnel may not assist in FBI national security investigations or operations.
Further, nominees cannot be a member of an FBI joint terrorism task force.
The bill is being heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee next week. If you want to contact the members of the committee to express your opinion on this legislation, the contact information for the committee is below:
Todd Gardenhire (R) – sen.todd.gardenhire@capitol.tn.gov – (615)7 41-6682
Sara Kyle (D) – sen.sara.kyle@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-4167
London Lamar (D) – sen.london.lamar@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2509
Jon Lundberg (R) – sen.jon.lundberg@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-5761
Kerry Roberts (R) – sen.kerry.roberts@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-4499
Paul Rose (R) – sen.paul.rose@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1967
John Stevens (R) – sen.john.stevens@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-4576
Brent Taylor (R) – sen.brent.taylor@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-3036
Dawn White (R) – sen.dawn.white@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-6853
sen.todd.gardenhire@capitol.tn.gov, sen.sara.kyle@capitol.tn.gov, sen.london.lamar@capitol.tn.gov, sen.jon.lundberg@capitol.tn.gov, sen.kerry.roberts@capitol.tn.gov, sen.paul.rose@capitol.tn.gov, sen.john.stevens@capitol.tn.gov, sen.brent.taylor@capitol.tn.gov, sen.dawn.white@capitol.tn.gov
About the Author: Kelly Jackson is a recent escapee from corporate America, and a California refugee to Tennessee. Christ follower, Wife and Mom of three amazing teenagers. She has a BA in Comm from Point Loma Nazarene University, and has a background in law enforcement and human resources. Since the summer of 2020, she has spent any and all free time in the trenches with local grassroots orgs, including Mom’s for Liberty Williamson County and Tennessee Stands as a core member. Outspoken advocate for parents rights, medical freedom, and individual liberty. Kelly can be reached at kelly@tennesseeconservativenews.com.