And does he actually believe that saying “Defund the FBI” is the same as saying “Defund the Police”? The FBI is not a safe-streets police force. It is mainly designed to counter sophisticated criminal syndicates that operate across state or national borders; its best work is deliberate and analytical, not instant and reactive policing. Defunding the police destroys communities; no one calls the FBI when a store gets robbed or an old lady gets mugged — they call the police, and they complain that if police were on the beat the neighborhood would be safe. If the FBI’s budget were zeroed out (a bad idea, to be clear) while municipal police forces were fully funded and encouraged to enforce the laws (a good idea), crime would be reduced dramatically.

The FBI can still be a valuable force for good, but not if we close our eyes and swallow our tongues regarding its problems. I believe it must be converted strictly into a federal law-enforcement agency, one that sticks to investigating serious crime and assisting the Justice Department in prosecuting it. Though that’s a hard job, it’s one the FBI can still do well. But the bureau should get out of domestic security and foreign counterintelligence. Those missions should be transferred to an intelligence agency that has no police powers — one that has liaison with law-enforcement agencies but does not do law enforcement, one that is bound to honor the Constitution in its domestic operations and subjected to exacting oversight.

Update (Ed): My extended thoughts on this are here.