[donthurtme]

Two points here:

- It's interesting how his academic background in criminology is in an area tangentially related to his own alleged social deviance -- maybe a "call of the void" type deal, in the sense that (anecdotally) some people who have a lifetime academic fixation on particular subject matter eventually reveal that it is somehow linked to their own deviant obsessions with it.

- It's also interesting how many law enforcement agencies there are embedded in the federal government, and how they basically have the same powers as one another. I recall surprise upon learning for the first time that the USPS has its own law enforcement agency back when Steve Bannon was arrested by postal inspectors last year, and am newly surprised to learn that the USFS has an equally well-equipped (in terms of warrant powers) police force.

[thghtihadanacct]

Dont cross double yellow lines and speed passed any state fish and wildlife ranger either. A good number of state and federal officials are put in enforcement situations and without that authority would be severely lacking in fulfilling their jobs.

[nomoreplease]

I’ve been told that in some states, wildlife and marine ranger have more authority than other law enforcement. Not sure if that’s apples & apples or apples & ooranges though

[jandrese]

It is very common for park rangers to behave like they are the king of the park. They may have a geographically limited powers, but they consider them absolute.

[rossdavidh]

The traditional name for this is "research is me-search".

[jbgreer]

"call of the void" => I believe another phrase you may be looking for is "imp of the perverse".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Imp_of_the_Perverse

[46756e]

Only slightly related, but how many real "call of the void" situations are really that? Most seem to be retrospective observations. For example, a criminal studying criminology because they like crime. Then when they are caught people suggest they were tempted by their studies, switching the causation.

The only situations I can really think of is more of like "stare long enough into the void and it stares back" where people fight an injustice long enough that they start to justify extreme measures to fight it. For example, like assuming all people accused of a crime are likely guilty so suspending privacy or searching people without cause is fine.

[salawat]

>The only situations I can really think of is more of like "stare long enough into the void and it stares back" where people fight an injustice long enough that they start to justify extreme measures to fight it. For example, like assuming all people accused of a crime are likely guilty so suspending privacy or searching people without cause is fine.

Seems there's a rash of that going on recently.

[throwaway81523]

> I recall surprise upon learning for the first time that the USPS has its own law enforcement agency

As someone put it to me a while ago, "the US military is so big that not only does its navy have its own army, but its navy's army's air force is the 8th largest in the world."[1]

[1] US Navy's army = US Marine corps; navy's army's air force = USMC Aviation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Marine_Corps_Avi... .

[slapfrog]

Related factoid; the US Navy is the world's second largest air force.. second only to the US Air Force itself. And if you split Alaska in two, Texas would be the third largest state.

[alksjdalkj]

There's a whole list of LEAs here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_law_enforcement_in_the.... I guess laws that are specific to just one department of the executive branch have to be enforced by the corresponding LEA from that department?

[ncmncm]

They can all arrest for any federal violation. But their investigative responsibilities are divided. In many states they can also arrest for non-federal violations, but must deliver the arrested to local authority.

[slapfrog]

> USPS has its own law enforcement agency

The United States Postal Inspection Service is actually the oldest of all federal law enforcement agencies. It's as old as this country is.