Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News (b)
The FBI team started strong and led at the half. But youth won in the end with a final score of 35-31. David Johnson, a supervisory special agent at Headquarters and a commanding presence on the court, said after the game what nobody wants to hear an FBI agent say: “We were outgunned and outmanned.”
Johnson said the game was a great example of trying to build trust. “We are our community and we want the community to have a relationship with us,” he said. “We want to know what they need from us. So this starts right here.”
James Johnson, a 15-year-old sophomore who landed a few buckets in the game, said the day offered him perspectives he had never imagined. “There’s 2,000 opportunities in the FBI and that is something that I never knew,” he said. “But I’m glad I got to find out. It’s different from any type of nine-to-five job. You can do multiple things and that’s what I like about it.”
David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the Washington Field Office, said the day’s lessons cut both ways. “One thing we learned from these kids today, and I think we’ve known this, is our agency can be pretty opaque to them,” he said. “They can’t put a face to it. And so it’s important for us to be in those communities putting a face to that.”
After the first game, the teams mixed it up, with the FBI and high-schoolers playing again amongst themselves. The day ended with a lot of smiles, fist-bumps, and group pictures—a day the young players will likely remember.
“We are breaking down walls,” said Freeman, the city’s DPR director. “We are removing barriers and removing stereotypes, one opportunity at a time.”