Cato Institute Podcast Recap: The Burglary (Part 1)

In his time, J. Edgar Hoover was very popular amongst the American people - very well-liked, and, according to a poll, even more so than some presidents. In 1924, he was appointed as the Director of the FBI at the age of 29, and he served in that position for half a century. At the time when Hoover held his position as Director of the FBI, there were, unlike today, there was absolutely no supervision of the institution's activity. Thus, there were very few government officials who suspected anything of the secret FBI Hoover was leading. This freedom brought about by the lack of oversight of Hoover's actions was what allowed him to abuse his power in his governing of COINTELPRO. However, the night of March 8th, 1971, everything changed. A group referred to as the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the an FBI office as a result of suspicion of Hoover's suppression of dissent and in pursuit of evidence against Hoover. Citizens took a stand against the suppression of one of the most powerful figures of governmental authority in the United States at the time, and embarked upon what may be referred to as "old school hacking".