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Something I learnt from watching the FBI Story

posted 11 years ago by mike-osullivan3
5 replies | jump to latest

The Ku Klux Klan was mainly concerned about the Bill of Rights, not lynching negroes. Indeed their acts of terrorism were exclusively committed against whites and the "destruction of ancient devotions". This must be true, as there seemed to be no actual black people living in the South.

[–] newguyindc2001 11 years ago

I noticed the same thing. Ridiculous. The FBI's role in rounding up Japanese Americans during WWII and hunting down "Communists" in the U.S. is also shameful.

[–] hobnob53 9 years ago

The FBI's role in rounding up Japanese Americans during WWII and hunting down "Communists" in the U.S. is also shameful.

Actually, the FBI had nothing to do with rounding up Japanese-Americans during the war. The Bureau did arrest and detain enemy aliens (non-citizens, including Germans and Italians as well as Japanese), but the FBI and Justice Department had nothing whatsoever to do with the rounding up or internment of Japanese-Americans. In fact, both resisted the move to deport Japanese from the West Coast, which is why even this flawed film goes out of its way to have James Stewart in his narration state that "These were enemy aliens, not loyal Americans of German or Japanese descent." The fact is J. Edgar Hoover opposed this "relocation" policy, which was championed by, among others, Earl Warren, then Attorney General of California and later the Chief Justice of the most progressive Supreme Court in history. But during the war Warren was one of those "shameful" people, including a great many liberals, who was among the loudest voices demanding Japanese internment.

As to "hunting down 'Communists'", Hoover was obviously a zealous anti-Communist, but the fact is there were Communist spies working for the Soviet Union engaged in espionage activities against the United States. Why would you have a problem with arresting spies? And yeah, in the postwar period they were actually Communists.

There's a lot to criticize in this movie and about Hoover and the FBI, as the OP's post points out, but not what you cited, which just indicates a profound ignorance of history.

[–] spookyrat1 10 years ago

This must be true, as there seemed to be no actual black people living in the South.

Yes, according to the film they were committing acts od domestic terrorism, due to their opposition to the federal government and its policies (not blacks, though I think I did see a menorah get vandalized).🐭

[–] Takeshi-K 9 years ago

This movie was partly financed by the Right Wing Revisionist History lobby of America.

Okay I just made that up, but its possible .

[–] funkyfry 8 years ago

there is a really brief sequence showing, like, a black family being terrorized, but they definitely skew it in such a way that racists watching the movie wouldn't be offended. It's hilarious how conservatives are always complaining about "political correctness" but isn't this the same kind of thing? Sheltering the sensibilities of racists by portraying the KKK as "enemies of the first amendment"?

Did I not love him, Cooch? MY OWN FLESH I DIDN'T LOVE BETTER!!! But he had to say 'Nooooooooo'