Student’s Resolve to Be Admired in FBI Incident

Today’s college students are known more for their enthusiasm about joining the business world than for their social activism. Though a campus rally for one side or the other in the Sandinista- contra conflict might bring out a small crowd, and a speech by Bishop Tutu may fill a hall, domestic politics has long since ceased to inspire passion among the young.

That’s why the case of Kristen Crabtree stands out as it does. Crabtree, an 18-year-old UC San Diego student, was among about 20 students protesting the presence of an FBI recruiter at a campus job fair in May. When she attempted to photograph the agent, Marene Allison, the agent grabbed at the strap of her camera, and Crabtree bit her on the hand. As a result, Crabtree was charged with assaulting a federal officer, a felony with a maximum punishment of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In subsequent weeks, the U.S. attorney’s office tried to make a deal with Crabtree, offering to drop the charges if she committed no further offenses for a year and if she gave up the rights to the pictures of Allison. Crabtree refused.

At a pretrial hearing the day before the trial was to begin, U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. threw the charge out of court, stating the obvious fact that not even an FBI agent has the right to prevent someone from taking a photograph in a public place.

The case has proved to be a real embarrassment for the FBI. Its argument that Allison’s ability to handle undercover assignments would be compromised if her picture appeared in a leftist student paper only made the bureau look inept for sending her on campus in the first place. And, in dismissing the case against Crabtree, Thompson suggested that it was Allison who came closer to committing an assault.

We don’t share Crabtree’s views that the FBI should not be welcomed on campuses as a potential employer, but we admire her resolve to stand up for her constitutional rights in the face of an abuse of authority by an agency of the government.