On the morning of June 26, 1975, two FBI Agents, Ron Williams and Jack Coler, drove separately to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the southwest corner of South Dakota. Their purpose was to locate and arrest Jimmy Eagle, who they had reason to believe was located in or near the reservation. A federal warrant had charged Eagle with robbery subsequent to his participation in a beating and robbery of an individual on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The only information the two FBI agents had at the time was that Eagle was driving a red vehicle.
For FBI Agents, Indian reservations are a unique professional experience. Normally, FBI Agents investigate federal crimes of broader national import, but the FBI has special jurisdiction to investigate a wide variety of crimes committed on about 200 national reservations. This jurisdiction is derived from the General Crimes Act and the Major Crimes Act. In this role, the FBI works closely with Tribal police to investigate crimes and effect arrests.
At 11:50 a.m., Agent Williams radioed Agent Coler that he’d spotted a red and white vehicle and would initiate a stop. Unbeknownst to either, the red vehicle was occupied by Leonard Peltier, wanted for the attempted murder of an off-duty Wisconsin police officer. Norman Charles and Joe Stuntz also occupied the vehicle. Within moments, Agent Coler arrived to a hail of bullets as Peltier, assisted by Charles and Stuntz, assaulted Williams’ position with an AR-15 rifle. Coler and Williams vainly attempted to return fire and were wounded multiple times. Agent Coler sustained a wound to his arm, which nearly severed it.
Mercilessly, Peltier riddled the agent’s vehicles with at least 125 rounds, turning the metal body panels of the green and beige sedans into veritable Swiss cheese. The .223 caliber rounds blew holes in the vehicles and passed through from side to side with ease. Bone and flesh were shattered and torn with impunity. Former FBI Director Chris Wray said, “Williams was on his knees, unable to stand, when Peltier shot him in the face through an outstretched hand.” Peltier shot Coler twice in the head as he lay on the ground unconscious.
This is the monstrous creature Joe Biden set free last week with his spate of infamous pardons and commutations.
Agents Williams and Coler are examples of the good men and women of the FBI who have and continue to risk their lives to protect the American people. Biden has dishonored that memory, just as those who continue to disparage the courageous acts of FBI Agents today. What the FBI does isn’t “cosplay,” as some malevolent voices have alleged. They occupy the same assembly of the despicable as Joe Biden and his America-hating cohorts.
Peltier has lobbied for commutation for decades, and presidents for the last fifty years, including Bill Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama, have refused his requests. It is a settled fact that Peltier is an unrepentant, cold-blooded murderer undeserving of the least shred of mercy. In fact, Peltier should have been put to death decades ago and consigned to an unmarked grave. But, Biden decided that Peltier’s recently applied status as an indigenous activist somehow sainted Peltier and mitigated the horrors of his murders because woke makes right. It’s simply another manifestation of the anti-law and order administration, which lauded BLM and ANTIFA operatives while demonizing law enforcement charged with maintaining the peace. The left needs anarchy, and their natural enemies are those who strive to maintain social comity.
FBI Director nominee Kash Patel decried Biden’s inexcusable act of callous imperiousness, “Biden has repeatedly failed to support the men and women of law enforcement, and this disgraceful action is the final insult to their service and sacrifice…Leonard Peltier is the epitome of evil and should have died in prison for his heinous crimes."
The FBI Agents Association also issued a statement excoriating Biden’s decision to commute Peltier’s double life sentence. “This last-second, disgraceful act by then-President Biden, which does not change Peltier’s guilt but does release him from prison, is cowardly and lacks accountability. It is a cruel betrayal to the families and colleagues of these fallen Agents and is a slap in the face of law enforcement.”
However, the Agents Association has had a difficult recent history, falling prey to the culture of politicization infecting the FBI itself through the mechanism of Obama’s DEI and Biden’s DEIA policies. FBI current and retired Agents still remember how the Agents Association issued gift cards to the Agents who participated in the infamous June 4, 2020 “kneeling” incident. As retired FBI Agent James Gagliano stated in his New York Post piece, “With outrageous, political decisions by its board, it has sullied itself just as James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Kevin Clinesmith annihilated the top law-enforcement agency’s reputation during the 2016 Russiagate hoax.”
And things haven’t improved. Recently, a former Agents Association President attempted to draw a moral equivalency between the Peltier commutation and the J6 political prisoner pardons/commutations. “Disgusting commutation of Peltier and pardon of two Virginia Police officer killers. Now we will see J6 pardon. None of this is Law and Order. How have we as a country fallen so far.” An indefensible and grotesque statement. Like the venerable agency itself, the FBI Agents Association has lost its way. The Association has been absolutely silent in the face of obvious politicization, such as the buffoonish Mar-a-Lago raid. The Association purports to be apolitical, but sitting idly by while civil liberties are trounced is tacit approval. The Association has been quick to decry the policies of Republican administrations, but silent in the face of Democrat overreach. It’s in as much need of reform as the FBI itself.
Thankfully, the Biden administration and its outrages are being relegated to the garbage heap of history, but its fellow travelers are still lurking. The future is bright, but we must remain vigilant and awake to the real insider threats.
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