Kristian Williams - Our Enemies in Blue - Police and Power in America

Rowe provided the FBI with a great deal of information on planned andactual violence by the Klan throughout his years as an informant. ... Onlyrarely, however, did Rowe's information lead to the prevention of violenceor arrests of Klan members. There were several reasons for this, includingthe difficulty of relying on local police to enforce the law against theKlan in the early 1960s, the failure of the Federal Government to initiallymobilize its own resources, and the role of the FBI as an investigativerather than police organization.1.l21be "investigative" rather than "police" mission of the FBI was a political fiction popularat the time, providing a technical excuse for federal inaction. Actually, Section 3052,Title 18 of the U.S. Administrative Code empowered the FBI to make arrests withoutwarrants ''for any offense against the Unitffi States committed in their presence."u,The availability of Federal Marshals for law enforcement purposes also remainedconveniently forgotten. U4 Whatever Rowe's own intentions, the inaction of his superiors was certainly culpable, and their explanations disingenuous.MISSISSIPPI: " FOR UNDERNEATH HER BORDERS THE DEVIL DRAWS NO LINE " mEven where White violence was at its most extreme, even where Black people weremost oppressed, the federal government was loath to act Its position, for mostof a century, had been that Black people were on their own; or, put differently,that local officials were free to treat them in whatever way they saw fit Whenthe federal government was moved to act, it was usually because some particularatrocity created a national uproar. One such event was the 1964 disappearance ofthree civil rights workers in the Mississippi back country.On June 21, 1964, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodmantraveled to Philadelphia, Mississippi, to investigate a fire at a Black church. Theynever returned. This was just one of many instances of violence and intimirl