where?

Where is the nitpick here? All this is is a 4 paragraph opinion on maybe someone should have done.

 

There

The answer to the commenter's question is: ,"In the second paragraph.,"

"It is desperately urgent that the killer be apprehended ... before he kills the latest abductee," but they "delay the raid until Crawford flies out from Washington."

Let us suppose that the Illinois suspect was Buffalo Bill, as Crawford thinks, and that he had killed Catherine Martin fifteen minutes before the raid occurred. What is Crawford's answer going to be when the Director asks him why the raid was delayed for a couple of hours?

If you can come up with a valid answer, I am refuted; if you can't, then I have pointed out a flaw in the plot.

 

I have the refute for your nitpick:

In your nitpick you stated the Jack Crawford leads the raid with "agents from the Chicago Field Office" This is incorrect. In the movie, Crawford tells Clarice that he is airborne with the SRT unit. The SRT team is the one that performed the raid, not the Chicago agents. If the tactical team had to be flown in from Washington, then Crawford might as well ride along.

 

Reply

Comment 51220 is an attempt to refute the nitpick. In fact, the result is to compound it.

The key line is the last: "If the tactical team had to be flown in from Washington, then Crawford might as well ride along." The force of the argument is undeniable. However, it is predicated upon the conditional "If" that begins it. The counter-argument, of course, is that no one from Washington should have been sent.

All that is being shown is a simple raid on a house. This is the sort of thing that any urban Police Department or, in this case, the Illinois State Police, handle routinely. One hardly needs the FBI at all for such matters, certainly not a special unit flown in from Washington. With time of the essence, the Chicago Field Office was the appropriate venue for supplying the raiders. Are we being told that only Agents dispatched from Washington could handle such a simple and straightforward task?

With the clock ticking, an hour is wasted while Crawford flies west. Now it is being suggested that only FBI HQ has personnel capable of conducting routine raids. Would they have delayed four hours if Buffalo Bill were not in Illinois, but in California? What about Hawaii?

In actuality, local FBI offices do work like this all the time as anyone would know from reading the daily newspaper. In the real world, Crawford would monitor the operation's progress from behind his desk in DC.\r

 

Response to "Reply" comment

To give you credit, it is true that a standard raid could have been conducted by Illinois personnel. However, you have to take into account the previous events of the story. Buffalo Bill was not an average bank robber or drug dealer. He was intelligent enough to elude the authorities despite commiting several murders and dumping bodies across the midwest and had the capability to be very cunning and dangerous. The FBI had just screwed up in Memphis by allowing standard police officers to take charge of a dangerous man, which would have made them reluctant to use police. There is also the possibility that Senator Martin would have influenced the decision to use the best team available for the raid. \r\r While the Chicago FBI agents were trained to do raids, it could be debated as to how well they were trained to handle hostage rescue situations. Also, most standard raids involve some intelligence and surveillance beforehand. This house was not scoped out and could have been booby trapped in some form. You also have to acknowledge the fact that any type of raid takes coordination and some planning. Agents couldn't just randomly run into the house; they would have to assign certain people to certain entrances as well as secure any necessary warrants through the court system. Remember, they didn't even know Buffalo Bill's real name until they traced the paperwork. By the time you secured the court papers and had the tactical team ready to go, it would have taken a couple of hours anyway. The loss of time is inevitable. Doesn't matter if the SWAT team is on an airplane getting ready or if they are sitting on the ground getting ready.