Briefly Noted: What Would A Less Heroic Nashville Response Have Looked Like?
A less heroic--but probably more effective--response might have involved investigating Anthony "Tony" Warner before he set off his huge bomb. Red State has an article this morning, citing seemingly reliable public sources, in which the claim is made that the state and local police had been warned a year ago that Warner was building bombs in his RV:
Nashville Bomber’s Girlfriend Warned Police He Was Making Bombs Last Year
Despite the F.B.I.’s claims to the contrary, law enforcement was warned about Anthony Q. Warner’s disturbing activities more than a year before he set off a bomb in downtown Nashville. The new information might shed light on the alleged bomber’s motive.
The Tennessean reported that “sixteen months before Anthony Quinn Warner’s RV exploded in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, officers visited his home in Antioch after his girlfriend reported that he was making bombs in the vehicle.”
Shortly after the bombing, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation stated that Warner was “not on our radar” before the attack. However, a Metro Nashville Police Department report from August of last year shows that “local and federal authorities were aware of alleged threats he had made,” according to The Tennessean .
It does not appear that law enforcement took any action against Warner despite the warning.On Aug. 21, 2019, his girlfriend told Nashville police that he “was building bombs in the RV trailer at his residence.” The officer then sent the information to the F.B.I.
Weird, isn't it? One wonders what local, state, and federal LE officials were so busy with that they had no time to do a bit of digging into complaints of a tech savvy guy building bombs.
In fairness to the FBI, they did take action when the information was relayed to them:
Nashville police sent the report to the F.B.I. the next day so they could check their databases.
Aaron said, “the FBI reported back that they checked their holdings and found no records on Warner at all.”
So are we now to learn that only repeat offenders, or those who otherwise show up in federal databases, get investigated by the FBI--or, for that matter, by the ATF which, in my understanding, has primary responsibility for bomb related matters? We're not told whether the FBI informed ATF. Weird. At least we know now what it takes for a bomber to get "on the radar" of the Feds: The bomber must first set off a bomb, so he can be certified as a bomber. Or something like that. I guess there's an inner logic to it all, but it's a logic that's not immediately apparent to the non-bureaucrat.
The article offers a further glimpse into that inner logic:
The F.B.I. told The Tennessean that the police called [Warner's attorney] Throckmorton during the week of Aug. 26, 2019. [MNPD spokesman] Aaron claimed that the attorney did not allow Warner to give consent to officers to search the RV.
Throckmorton contradicts this claim. He told the news outlet that “while he represented Warner in a civil matter several years ago, Warner was no longer a client of his in August 2019. He disputes that he told police they couldn’t search the RV.”
“I have no memory of that whatsoever,” Throckmorton said. “I didn’t represent him anymore. He wasn’t an active client. I’m not a criminal defense attorney.”
The attorney believes that the police could have done more to stop the bombing from happening. “Somebody, somewhere dropped the ball,” he said.
“At no time was there any evidence of a crime detected and no additional action was taken,” Aaron said. “No additional information about Warner came to the department’s or the FBI’s attention after August 2019.”
The position of LE seems to be that if no evidence is in plain sight, then no investigation is initiated. Wait for the bomb. Or, out of sight, out of mind. We serve and protect.