Squared

I had a conversation with a suave Federal Agent whenever ago during which he, in rebuttal to my innocuous allegation that members of law enforcement never learn from their mistakes, cited a 1986 shootout that happened in Miami, Florida, involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I’d never heard of the event and I listened intently as my partner in dialogue gave me a compendious narration of the incident and asserted that the FBI had changed because of it. The gentleman further encouraged me to look into the story.

Ahhh, well, gee, if you insist…

I read whatever I could find. Mainstream news reports, theoretical articles, commentary from both the Federal-Bureau-of-Insidiots types and the pro-FBI side, plus all 621 pages of the inquiry carried on by the Feds themselves. I’m like wonk²!

Should I ever get an opportunity to revisit the discussion with the man, I may have to confess to him that I was wrong about my previous conclusion. And thank him, because, from the exploration, I’m now armed with a fresh contention for us to verbally wrestle about.

Thing is, I dig this kind of junk. Throw in another interest of mine, JADE, and a fifteen-paged document like this is bliss².