The FBI has defended its decision not to monitor Wade Michael Page, the gunman who killed six people at a Gurdwara in Wisconsin, citing civil liberties and rights to its citizens enshrined in the Constitution.
Federal officials said that they can’t open an investigation against anyone in the country based on what they say or what they want.
“To what extent we have — tracking white supremacy group, — this is an issue where law enforcement has to continually balance the civil liberties, the rights that every US citizen has, to think what they want, believe what they want and say what they want,” FBI Milwaukee Special Agent in-Charge Teresa Carlson told reporters at a crowded news conference in Oak Creek.
“Obviously, we cannot investigate people for any of those things. So no matter how horrendous or reprehensible those things may be, until somebody actually threatens, there’s a threat of force or violence, we cannot open an investigation on them,” Carlson said as she defended the FBI decision not to monitor the activities of Page even as he was on the radar of several private organizations keep a track on his activities.