There has been some talk about moving the FBI Headquarters to a different location. Trump got involved in this and stopped the action, however, his motives are unclear. Many analysts believe that the potential developer of the current FBI building would become a competitor for the Trump Hotel that is located only a few blocks for FBI HQ. Thus, the FBI building and Trump have been in the news recently. Listed below are a few videos and articles covering this controversy.
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The Hoover-MLK controversy as was mentioned in the post over politics has found a new light thanks to the JFK file release. Because of this, media outlets began posting documentaries and coverage over this past scandal. From serious coverage from outlets such as CNN to a comedic coverage coming from Comedy Central, the JFK files brought to light this past issue. Listed below is a list of videos covering this issue (starting with my favorite one, the Comedy Central coverage).
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The FBI is the most powerful legal agency in The United States. It was established as an impartial and professional organization and has tried to maintain that reputation since its inception. The investigations that are held by the Federal Investigation Bureau ought not to be driven by any sort of political incentive. And while this has been the case for the grand majority of the time, ever since the 2016 presidential election there has been doubt over the impartiality of the FBI. According to NPR correspondent Ron Evling, “some Republicans, disappointed by the lack of charges over Hillary Clinton’s emails and distressed by the continuing probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, suddenly perceive corruption in the FBI”. While senior officials in the FBI comment that the Bureau has never been used as a political tool, the fact is that the FBI has had strong political incentives since its inception.
Inception:
The FBI was created in 1908 by Teddy Roosevelt primarily to catch business leaders that were violating anti-trust laws. By creating this Bureau with this purpose in mind, Roosevelt was fueling his own political agenda. Moreso, the FBI was accused multiple times of harassing political radicals and detaining citizens who had not registered for the draft during World War I.
A Political Tool During the Civil Rights Movement:
Under the leadership of Hoover, the FBI created a counterintelligence program titled COINTELPRO. This program aimed at battling leftists such as leaders of the Communist Party and protesters of the Vietnam War. Trying to cut back the violence that came from extremist leaders, Hoover directed the efforts of the FBI towards the civil rights movement. Originally, the FBI began to “engage in disruptive tactics against the Ku Klux Klan in the South”, however, “after bloody riots erupted in many U.S. cities in the mid-1960s and later, Hoover turned his focus to ‘black nationalist’ groups such as the Black Panthers” (“NPR”). At one extreme Hoover began to harass Martin Luther King Jr. For years Hoover “hounded Martin Luther King Jr. … at one point sending him tape recordings of his tapped telephone and urging him to commit suicide” (“NPR”).
Further Reading:
The Washington Post- FBI and MLK
Works Cited
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation has predominately consisted of white men. While the rest of the world has diversified its workforce and made long strides for equality, the FBI still seems to be behind. The main reason for the lack of diversity within the Bureau is stereotypes. Being that the FBI is primarily concerned with national security, hiring people with a foreign heritage is rare. Moreso, while other sectors of employment throughout The United States have continued to experience an increase in diversity, the FBI has actually become worse. Due to the political climate that we are in now and as a reaction to the ideas that Donald Trump has pushed throughout his presidency, the FBI has become increasingly more “white” throughout recent years. The situation has gone so far as to be called a crisis by the former FBI director James Comey (“Pacific”). In a speech at Cookman University Comey said “slowly but steadily over the last decade or more, the percentage of special agents in the FBI who are white has been growing. I’ve got nothing against white people- especially tall, awkward, male white people- but that is a crisis for reasons that you get, and that I’ve worked very hard to make sure the entire FBI understands” (“Pacific”).
Legal Action:
In the 1990s, a group of black agents sued the FBI for discrimination within the bureau. During this time about 1 in 20 agents was black and this group of black agents claimed that there was “systemic discrimination by the bureau in the quality of assignments, performance reviews, rates of promotions, and overall workplace culture” (Pacific). In 1993 a federal judge concluded that there “was statistical evidence of discrimination at the FBI, and a settlement was reached” (Pacific). While a promise was made to diversify the bureau, the FBI is hesitant in releasing full statistics over the demographics of the people they hire. Moreso, the few numbers that have been released to the public indicate that this problem has only worsened.
Works Cited
Sanders, Topher. “The FBI Has a Serious Diversity Problem.” Pacific Standard, Pacific Standard, 20 Mar. 2018, psmag.com/social-justice/the-fbi-has-an-ongoing-diversity-problem.
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The FBI was created in 1908. From 1908 until 1975, the FBI was housed within the Department of Justice Building. The first proposal to give the FBI its own building was in 1941, however, The United States’s involvement in World War II postponed any serious building projects. It was not until April 1962 that Congress approved plans for a separate FBI building. According to the FBI website “The General Services Administration (GSA), which handles public building construction, allocated $12,265,000 for architectural and engineering design. At that time, the total estimated cost was $60 million” (FBI).
FBI Building, Southwest View of the Cleared Site with the Old Post Office Building Tower in the Background c. 1967. (GSA).
The administration selected Charles F. Murphy and Associates of Chicago as the primary architects and Berswenger, Hoch, Arnold and Associates of Akron as the primary engineers. The land upon which the FBI building was built cost $41.17 per square foot. The design of the building was made to facilitate security. In fact, security was the number one priority when designing the building. The building has an “open mezzanine and courtyard, but access to the courtyard is limited, and most of the first floor is closed to facilitate security” (FBI). The architectural style of the building reflects what was popular during the 1960s, however, this choice was primarily made because concrete was the most economically sound material at the time. Thus, the reason for the bland color of the facade can be best attributed to economic reasons.
Construction of the building (FBI)
When the building was finally completed the total cost was $126,108,000. This final cost was $106,000,000 more than the original 1939 proposal (FBI). The building was named J. Edgar Hoover F.B.I. Building and the final employees moved into the building in 1977.
Final Project (FBI)
Works Cited
“FBI Construction Gallery.” Home, 15 Feb. 2018, www.gsa.gov/real-estate/gsa-properties/visiting-public-buildings/jedgar-hoover-fbi-building/image-galleries/fbi-construction-gallery.
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The FBI has a vault where they keep a lot of their primary source documents. Trying to seek out exciting information, I stumbled across the documents the FBI has released over UFO sightings. While these documents do not have any relation to Area 51, they are nonetheless very interesting. Only a few of them are legible as the way they are transposed makes the lettering very dark. I found it very interesting that although these documents were dated in the 1940s, they have been transposed onto the internet. It shows how the FBI has had to adapt to changing times.
Primary Sources:
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The FBI is portrayed in movies or tv shows as a very secretive and important organization. It has carried a heroic, patriotic, and even protective feeling. Overall, the connotation that society has placed on the FBI is one that mimics the characteristics of superheroes. Becuase of this characteristic, hearing the phrase FBI headquarters brings imagery of a superhero headquarter or an area bustiling with noise and action. Carrying a more realistic viewpoint I let my childhood ideas that the FBI building would be an exciting place go and went to visit expecting a normal office building. While the location was not full of extremely exciting people running in and out of the building it was, in fact, quite busy. People came and left in black cars and the security guards outside never let their guard down.
Movie scene:
To my suprise, I did witness a scene that was inline with my childhood perception of the FBI building. Out of nowhere a group of police cars and black SUV’s came rushing down the street. The immediately parked to the side of the building and ran inside. Nothing else was known.
Video by Alex Castro
Photo by Alex Castro
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The interior of the FBI building is restricted to a very select group of people. The security to enter the building is extremely intensive. Watching people go in and out of the building it was clear the different levels of clearance.
Visits:
Walking around the building I tried to go inside. Immediately upon entering a few people asked me who I was or what I was doing. I asked if I could visit or take at tour of any part of the interior and they told me that tours for the public were by appointment only. Shortly after I was asked to leave.
After doing more research into how tours are scheduled I came to the conclusion that the process is similar to that of White House tours. One has to schedule a tour through his or her congressman and it must be a large group.
Further reading into how to schedule a tour can be found here.
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The exterior of the FBI building is incredibly bland. Located within a very vibrant area within the city, the FBI building appears to be an outcast. The best summary for the exterior of the FBI building comes from Donald Trump’s opinion. According to him “It’s one of the brutalist-type buildings, you know, brutalist architecture. Honestly, I think it’s one of the ugliest building in the city” (“Curbed”).
Photo by Alex Castro
As is evident from the picture above, the building is extremely layered. In other words, the windows on the building make it evident that the ceilings on each floor are very low. Also, the colour scheme of the facade gives it a very professional and bland look. Perhaps, this was done intentionally in order not to bring much attention, nor tourism, to the building.
Photo by Alex Castro
The security in front of the building was very intense. Parking garages were heavily guarded and there were security guards at each entrance to the building. I approached a few of the guards at the entrances and explained to them my project. I asked if I could talk to them for a few minutes or if I could take a few pictures to add to my archives. Each and every time they told me no and suggested that I be on my way.
Photo by Alex Castro
Cameras:
The exterior of the building hosts a lot of discrete cameras. One of the cameras is pictured here. Again, this provides the building with another layer of security.
Photo by Alex Castro
The only sort of decoration that I was able to see from the exterior were these American flags. It gave the building a very patriotic feeling, however, they are only placed on this one side. The overall facade of the building is very plain, however, the fact that they have flags placed and nothing else shows the importance of patriotism within this community.
Works Cited
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