It’s probably just us, but it seems time for Memphis FBI Special Agent in Charge My Harrison to get back to Quantico for some in-service training.
More and more, her comments at media conferences called in the wake of whomever is indicted this week come across as headline hunting at best and unprofessional at worst.
She’s become the antithesis of the circumspect and carefully modulated approach taken by Memphis U.S. Attorney David Kustoff. Some in Mr. Kustoff’s office have expressed some discomfort, but in a nod to the political theater of these things, they recognize the important value of having an African-American at the podium as indictment after indictment was returned against African-American Democratic political power brokers.
After so much deserved criticism about suspicions of racial profiling in the federal investigations, she seemed almost flippant when the long sought after indictment of a white elected official – any white official – finally came, against former Shelby County Commissioner Bruce Thompson.
“What can I say other than same game, different name,” she said.
Well, what you could say is this: “Those of us at the FBI have conducted a thorough investigation, we are proud of our work, we believe that the charges are warranted and we look forward to the jury’s decision on these matters.”
Her dramatic soliloquy about “cover of darkness,” “back of the room” and public corruption’s “ugly head” may get her the favorable press she seems to want, but they do little to project the façade of professionalism that is the hallmark of the “I.”
It triggers memories when an eager young reporter looking for an inflammatory comment in the wake of an indictment called a former county sheriff. His response: “We did our job. It is to investigate. It’s now up to others to decide if we are right, and we look forward to presenting our case to the jury.”
If a county sheriff can respond with that degree of professionalism, it shouldn’t be too to expect it from the law enforcement agency arguably considered the best in the world.
And in an era where there are so many suspicions about the activities of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies, it’s more reassuring to hear comments of calm confidence than the macho remarks by the head of an investigative agency office with tens of millions of dollars to spend and dozens of agents to deploy.
Maybe that’s one quote by Ms. Harrison got our attention for its inadvertent double meaning. In her soundbite for an earlier conference, she said something like: Tap, tap, tap, you never know where we’ll go next.
In light of the Bush Administration’s passion for warrantless wire taps and the Department of Justice’s support for that position, that one hit a little too close to home.
