This is the Cato Dilly Podcast for Friday, April 19th, 2013.

I'm Caleb Brown.

20 years ago today, the standoff at Waco, Texas ended.

It ended in the deaths of 76 men, women, and children. Today, it's still

not clear how federal agencies have changed. Tim Lynch, director of the Cato Institute's

project on criminal justice, takes us through what we've learned

since that tragic day.

This was to that date the worst disaster in law enforcement history, certainly federal law enforcement history.

That's right, especially when you consider the loss of life.

There are more than 76 people lost their lives including 27 children.

So just in terms of the loss of life, that is a sufficient explanation as to why the

Waco incident is worth remembering and why it's important.

Shortly after the event, I recall Andy Rooney on 60 minutes laying blame at the feet of these people who had died saying you want to

know whose fault it was these people's fault and and for a while I think the

opinion was was fairly divided for a little while about you know how

did this happen whose fault is this and then it later on sort of became clear whose fault it was.

Yeah, we have to remember that on the day it happened,

the incident went on for 51 days,

and then on April 19th was the culmination.

That was the day the FBI had their tanks go in

to try to end the standoff.

And by the end of the day, there was the inferno,

...