[NYTr] LA Cops Want to "Map Muslims" (HR 1955-Related)

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

See prior post with text of the "anti-terror" legislation here:
Text of HR 1955: 
Prevention of Violent Radicalization & Homegrown Terrorists
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071105/071301.html

sent by Jane Franklin

Here we go:  Los Angeles Police Out in Front

I sent the text of "Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown 
Terrorism, HR 1955, that was passed by the House on October 23.  Looks
like (see below) Los Angeles is jumping the gun, so to speak, by taking
this "step toward thwarting radicalization."  Los Angeles Deputy Police
Chief Michael P. Downing has already testified before the Senate
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and you can
read here about his plans for a "prevention" strategy.  Thank goodness
for protesters who understand what is taking place and are not being
scared off.  Note that the map of Muslim Angelenos would take into
account "where they get their news." Well, I got this from The New York
Times! Jane Franklin
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jbfranklins


New York Times - November 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/us/09muslim.html


Protest Greets Police Plan to Map Muslim Angelenos

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

A plan by the counterterrorism bureau of the Los Angeles Police
Department to create a map detailing the Muslim communities in that
city, an effort described as a step toward thwarting radicalization,
has angered civil rights groups, which say it is no better than racial
profiling.

At least three major Muslim groups and the American Civil Liberties
Union sent a letter yesterday to top city officials raising concerns
about the plan.

“When the starting point for a police investigation is ‘let’s look at
all Muslims,’ we are going down a dangerous road,” Peter Bibring, a
lawyer with the A.C.L.U. of Southern California, said in an interview.
“Police can and should be engaged with the communities they are
policing, but that engagement can’t be a mask for intelligence
gathering.”

The objections started after Michael P. Downing, a deputy Los Angeles
police chief who heads the counterterrorism bureau, testified before a
United States Senate committee on Oct. 30 that the Police Department
was combining forces with an unidentified academic institution and
looking for a Muslim partner to carry out the mapping project. He
emphasized that he wanted the process to be transparent.

In his testimony, to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Committee, Mr. Downing said the project would determine the geographic
distribution of Muslims in the sprawling Los Angeles area and take “a
look at their history, demographics, language, culture, ethnic
breakdown, socioeconomic status and social interactions.”

The idea, Mr. Downing said in an interview yesterday, would be to
determine which communities might be having problems integrating into
the larger society and thus might have members susceptible to carrying
out attacks, much like domestic cells in England and elsewhere in
Europe.

“There are people out there who believe in extreme violent ideology who
present a threat to the American people, and that is what we are trying
to prevent,” he said. “This could be called another prevention
strategy.”

The civil rights groups argue that contrary to what has been found in
Europe, the scattered cases exposed in the United States have involved
individuals with no clear ties to international terrorism groups.

The estimated 500,000 Muslims living in the greater Los Angeles area,
including Orange and Riverside Counties, make its concentration of
Muslims the second largest in the United States, after New York City’s.

Not all Muslim groups in the area object to Mr. Downing’s idea.

“There has been a lot of discussion on the issue of ghettoization and
counterghettoization,” said Salam al-Marayati, executive director of
the Muslim Public Affairs Council, which is considering being the
Police Department’s partner in the project. Mr. Marayati said his group
supported anything that would help integration as long as it
safeguarded civil liberties.

Among those interviewed, whatever their position on the project, Mr.
Downing rated high marks for his community policing efforts, and the
letter to city officials suggested that the groups opposed to his idea
meet with him to discuss it. Those signing the letter included Muslim
Advocates, a national association of Muslim lawyers, and the Islamic
Shura Council of Southern California, an umbrella organization for
mosques.

The groups were particularly angered that in his Senate testimony, Mr.
Downing, discussing the possibility of Muslims’ radicalization, seemed
to suggest looking at factors like exposure to the puritanical
teachings of the Wahhabi sect, instability in countries of origin and
where they get their news. He also suggested that the study would
result in helping amplify the voice of Muslim moderates who could
counter fanatics.

“Who is going to decide who are the moderates?” said Hussam Ayloush,
executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations for the
Los Angeles area, who also signed the letter. “Are Muslims who
criticize the war in Iraq moderate?”

The groups’ letter coincided with the release yesterday by Mayor
Antonio R. Villaraigosa and other city and law enforcement officials of
an F.B.I. report that Al Qaeda might be planning to strike at shopping
malls in Los Angeles and Chicago during the Christmas season. But the
F.B.I. report itself characterized the information as uncertain.

The groups involved in protesting the mapping plan said any threat from
Al Qaeda, even a tenuous one, underscored their point that limited
police resources should be directed at investigating real crimes rather
than at what they characterized as treating the entire Muslim community
with suspicion.

“Al Qaeda has always operated outside the United States,” Mr. Ayloush
said, “and has miserably failed to gain any support or sympathy among
the American Muslim population.”

Michael Parrish contributed reporting from Los Angeles.