Letter: Public must know more to protect from extremists

FBI director James Comey says that even though the Orlando Islamic terrorist shooter has been on their radar and even been interviewed by the FBI, they couldn’t take him into custody “because he hadn’t committed any crime.” And since he hadn't "committed any crimes" the FBI “did nothing wrong” by not taking further action.

I disagree. Any time anyone states they are members or supporters of a radical group (Isis, Isil, Taliban, Al Qaeda, etc.) that is at war with the U.S. and has vowed to kill Americans (especially members of minority communities such as Jewish or LGBT), the FBI should immediately notify local law enforcement. The FBI should provide local law enforcement with all known facts, statements by the individual, photographs, etc. Local law enforcement, using their public information officers, should then immediately alert the public of the potential threat. Local law enforcement and we the people are very capable of protecting ourselves from serious threats by radicalized individuals.

The problem is that we are not being told what or who those threats are until it is too late. We are kept informed about such potential threat as sexual predators through a sex offender registry which includes photographs, addresses, etc. Why is the FBI withholding critical information about radicalized Islamists who are intent on killing us? FBI stands for Federal Bureau of Investigation. I concede that they do an excellent job of “investigation” but they cannot protect us.

This story was originally published June 15, 2016 at 8:52 PM with the headline "Letter: Public must know more to protect from extremists."