ABOLISHFBI

Federal Bureau of Investigation

J. Edgar Hoover built it to keep files on everyone. The files never stopped.

Official story

What they claim to do

Investigates federal crimes and threats to national security.

Ground truth

What they actually do

Through COINTELPRO from 1956 to 1971, the FBI surveilled and tried to discredit civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., along with anti-war groups and political dissidents. Since 9/11, human-rights groups have documented terrorism stings in which agents helped supply the plot.

The libertarian case

Policing belongs close to home, where voters can reach it. A permanent national police force has always ended up pointed at dissent, and no reform has outlasted the next administration. Return real crimes to state and local law enforcement and let the rest go.

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