Revolutions usually start from the ground up. But can it come from the top down?

Former FBI special agent Nicole Parker, in an opinion piece for Fox News, wrote that the bureau’s priorities and governing principles have shifted dramatically over the years.

From Parker's insider perspective, the FBI has become politically weaponized -- starting from the top in Washington, D.C., and trickling down to the field offices.

The former special agent knows what she's talking about.

In 2009, Parker decided to leave a multibillion-dollar hedge fund to become an FBI special agent. Approximately 45,000 people applied for the job that year. About 900 made the cut. Parker was one of them.

After five months of arduous training at the Academy in Quantico, Parker was sworn in as a special agent. She was assigned to the Miami Division.

Parker participated with multiple agencies in investigations such as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, the 2017 Fort Lauderdale airport shooting, the Cesar Sayoc pipe bomb case, multimillion-dollar Ponzi schemes, crimes on the high seas, bank robberies, murders for hire, sexual assaults, extortions, and more.

"I considered it a sacred responsibility and was honored to be entrusted to protect and serve the American people," Parker wrote. "My entire career was spent in the field, where I believed I could make the strongest impact in rescuing victims and putting criminals behind bars."

And then something changed.

The bureau became increasingly politicized. There was "one politicization issue after another at the FBI."

In one example, Parker recalled a telling incident on June 20, 2020, where "images and videos surfaced online of special agents in their FBI-marked ballistic vests kneeling to protesters in Washington, D.C., while on official duty protecting our nation’s institutions."

FBI agents are not allowed to publicly express any "potential political support" while on duty. Some of the agents said they were kneeling for "de-escalation purposes." That failed to explain why in some images the kneeling agents were clapping and smiling.

"They hardly seemed to be in danger," Parker wrote. Apparently, they weren't. The agents posted at a nearby building who stayed on their feet during the entire protest did not appear to be very alarmed.

To make it even worse, the agents who knelt that day were not reprimanded. They were rewarded. Some of them received highly sought-after promotions. Some were offered $100 gift cards by the FBI Agents Association, according to Parker.

So much for remaining objective and politically neutral.

Many in the FBI were disturbed to see the lack of judgment by the kneelers in a show of apparent political preference. And some agents were aghast when some FBI managers treated the kneelers like heroes.

The incident marked a sea change in the bureau.

"It’s as if there became two FBIs," Parker reflected.

In an interview on Fox News, Parker emphasized that about 99.9 percent of the employees at the FBI operate fairly in their investigations.

Though the great majority of agents honor their oath to support and defend the Constitution, it only takes a small percentage of politicized agents at the top to "destroy the bureau’s credibility."

When this happens, it causes Americans to lose faith in the FBI. This not only causes distrust of the bureau by many Americans, but it also creates low morale among many agency employees.

The trickle-down effect results in teams that are less cohesive. Agents lose trust in each other. This makes everyone less safe.

What was once a noble calling becomes an extremely high-risk job with minimal contentment.

And the trickle-down continues. New agents become more difficult to recruit. This results in lowering the eligibility requirements, which negatively affects the agency’s overall performance.

Parker began to sour on the job she once loved.

"For me," Parker reflected, "distancing myself from egregious mistakes, immoral behavior and politically charged actions taken by a small but destructive few FBI employees became exhausting. Although I was always treated with the highest level of respect in the Miami Division, I no longer felt that I was the type of agent the FBI valued."

She held out as long as she could hoping things would change. When they didn't,  she was "profoundly saddened that conditions had deteriorated to the point that leaving was my best option."

And so, without fanfare, Parker walked away from the FBI -- her exemplary record intact.

Parker's resignation is America's loss.

This is another sad example of tyranny by the minority, where a small percentage of politically motivated individuals, in this case at the top of the food chain, incites a kind of revolution -- not to throw off tyranny but to embrace it.

This is why so many Americans no longer trust our most hallowed institutions such as the FBI: the corruption goes all the way to the top.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.