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rsine69
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LAPD to build data on Muslim areas
LAPD to build data on Muslim areas
Anti-terrorism unit wants to identify sites 'at risk' for extremism.
By Richard Winton, Jean-Paul Renaud and Paul Pringle, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
November 9, 2007
An extensive mapping program launched by the LAPD's anti-terrorism bureau to identify Muslim enclaves across the city sparked outrage Thursday from some Islamic groups and civil libertarians, who denounced the effort as an exercise in racial and religious profiling.
Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing, who heads the bureau, defended the undertaking as a way to help Muslim communities avoid the influence of those who would radicalize Islamic residents and advocate "violent, ideologically-based extremism."
"We are seeking to identify at-risk communities," Downing said in an interview Thursday evening. "We are looking for communities and enclaves based on risk factors that are likely to become isolated. . . . We want to know where the Pakistanis, Iranians and Chechens are so we can reach out to those communities."
Downing added that the Muslim Public Affairs Council has embraced the vaguely defined program "in concept." The group's executive director, Salam Al-Marayati, said Thursday that it wanted to know more about the plan and had a meeting set with the LAPD next week.
"We will work with the LAPD and give them input, while at the same time making sure that people's civil liberties are protected," said Al-Marayati, who commended Downing for being "very forthright in his engagement with the Muslim community."
Others condemned the project, however.
"We certainly reject this idea completely," said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. "This stems basically from this presumption that there is homogenized Muslim terrorism that exists among us."
Syed said he is a member of Police Chief William J. Bratton's forum of religious advisors, but had not been told of the community mapping program. "This came as a jolt to me," Syed said.
Hussam Ayloush, who leads the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the mapping "basically turns the LAPD officers into religious political analysts, while their role is to fight crime and enforce the laws."
During Oct. 30 testimony before Congress, Downing described the program broadly as an attempt to "mitigate radicalization." At that time, he said law enforcement agencies nationwide faced "a vicious, amorphous and unfamiliar adversary on our land."
Downing and other law enforcement officials said police agencies around the world are dealing with radical Muslim groups that are isolated from the larger community, making potential breeding groups for terrorism. He cited terror cells in Europe as well as the case of some Muslim extremists in New Jersey arrested in May for allegedly planning to bomb Ft. Dix.
"We want to map the locations of these closed, vulnerable communities, and in partnership with these communities . . . help [weave] these enclaves into the fabric of the larger society," he said in his testimony.
"To do this, we need to go into the community and get to know peoples' names," he said. "We need to walk into homes, neighborhoods, mosques and businesses."
To assemble the mapping data, Downing said in an interview Thursday, the LAPD intends to enlist USC's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, which was founded four years ago with $12 million in federal funds.
In 2003, university officials said the center would focus on threats to power plants, telecommunications and transportation systems.
It recently was tapped to strengthen security at Los Angeles International Airport.
Downing said the effort would not involve spying on neighborhoods. He said it would identify groups, not individuals.
"This has nothing to do with intelligence," he said, comparing it to market research.
But in his congressional testimony, Downing said the LAPD hoped to identify communities that "may be susceptible to violent, ideologically-based extremism and then use a full-spectrum approach guided by an intelligence-led strategy."
Downing told lawmakers the program would "take a deeper look at the history, demographics, language, culture, ethnic breakdown, socioeconomic status and social interactions."
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He added that the project was in its very early stages, and that its cost and full scope have not been determined.
"Physically the work has not begun," Downing said.
The American Civil Liberties Union and some community groups sent a letter Thursday to Downing expressing "grave concerns" about the program and asking for a meeting.
"The mapping of Muslim communities . . . seems premised on the faulty notion that Muslims are more likely to commit violent acts than people of other faiths," the letter states.
ACLU Executive Director Ramona Ripston compared the program to the Red Scare of the 1950s and said: "This is nothing short of racial profiling."
But Al-Marayati said he believed that Downing was working in good faith.
"He is well-known in the Muslim community," he said. "He's been in a number of mosques and been very forthright in his engagement with the Muslim community."
richard.winton@latimes.com
jp.renaud@latimes.com
paul.pringle@latimes.com
Times staff writers Francisco Vara-Orta, Andrew Blankstein and Stuart Silverstein contributed to this report.
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11/11/2007, 6:22 am
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MaximusDementis
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Re: LAPD to build data on Muslim areas
Well, judging from what has happened in England I think its a damn good idea. Its in isolated communities where one only sees others of the same religion, race, and ideologies, that extremists are born. Right now the bombers are coming from Islamic communities, and I say lets keep an eye on them. What will they public scream and cry when a mad bomber drives a truck full of explosives up to a busy Farmer's Market? They will wonder why no one was paying any attention and possibly people will lose their jobs. I think its a wise move.
I don't favor the WWII solution of carting all Moslems to concentration camps, but I do think we need to be active and involved in their communities. Everyone should reach out to their Muslim neighbors and friends and make them feel a vital part of our community with a stake in keeping it safe. Meanwhile its the job of a police force to keep intelligence assets focused in hot spots.
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11/11/2007, 1:28 pm
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Lesigner Girl
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Re: LAPD to build data on Muslim areas
LAPD to build data on Muslim areas
Anti-terrorism unit wants to identify sites 'at risk' for extremism.
Maybe they should build data on some Christian churches while they're at it, starting with Westboro Baptist. If you're looking for religious extremism, Fred Phelp's church is probably the best place to start. Then again, maybe we need data on the "anti-terrorism unit" itself, because they're probably the biggest terrorists of them all.
No offense to the Christians currently posting here, because you are far from extreme. 
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11/14/2007, 9:17 pm
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OrbitusVode
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Re: LAPD to build data on Muslim areas
First they came for the Muslims, but I did not speak up, because I am not a Muslim...
---
"Free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."
~George W. Bush
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11/15/2007, 2:05 am
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MaximusDementis
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Re: LAPD to build data on Muslim areas
Don't just speak up, go interact with them. Show them that they are among friends and neighbors who care about them.
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11/16/2007, 3:10 pm
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Lesigner Girl
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Re: LAPD to build data on Muslim areas
OrbitusVode said:
First they came for the Muslims, but I did not speak up, because I am not a Muslim...
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11/16/2007, 9:18 pm
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Metis
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Re: LAPD to build data on Muslim areas
Like it or not, believe in total religious freedom or not, a hard fact in the world today is that followers of radical Islam are the primary supporters and performers of urban conflict. Thus, I see nothing wrong with “keeping an eye” on those suspected of ties with terrorism. Actually, this was done by the FBI and other agencies in the US for nearly 50 years and it didn’t amount to much for the average citizen unless they became “squeaky wheels” about it.
I personally have lost much of my expectation of privacy anyway. Once, as a soldier, then a health-care worker, and now as a public employee in the educational field my records are essentially public access anyway (yes, if you didn’t know it, in many states a teacher’s records are public access).
Also, nearly every urban area in Britain (government controlled cameras) and the US (a combination of government and privately-controlled cameras) is monitored by CCTV. Satellites orbit overhead taking pictures constantly (check out Google Earth). Thus far I’ve seen all this surveillance adversely affect only criminals.
Believe me, having worked for the government I can tell you that there’s most likely no conspiracy and nothing much could happen even if there was. Movies aside, the average American soldier is also your average American. The vast majority of soldiers would no more blindly follow orders, especially if they were directed against other Americans, than you or I would. And even if they tried America would rise up in arms (there are more of us former soldiers than there are current ones) and that would be the end of it.
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11/24/2007, 7:23 am
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Lesigner Girl
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Re: LAPD to build data on Muslim areas
Like it or not, believe in total religious freedom or not, a hard fact in the world today is that followers of radical Islam are the primary supporters and performers of urban conflict.
What is your idea of radical Islam, and do you think there are more of radical Muslims attending mosques in this country than there are radical Christians who bomb abortion clinics? Maybe we need to spy on all churches along with the mosques, so maybe we'll catch some of those so-called pro-lifers before they kill more innocent people.
I agree with religious freedom as long as it doesn't infringe on other people's freedoms. The Bible has Yahweh commanding that people to be stoned to death for adultery, witchcraft, cussing out their parents, or even eating shrimp, but that should not be allowed under the heading of religious freedom. Likewise, our government shouldn't make Muslims fear exercising their religious freedom, which is what happens when we spy on mosques and make them all feel like they're under suspicion of having terrorist ties, simply because they attend a mosque. Heck, I'm sure a lot of them are under suspicion of terrorism for no other reason than the fact that they are Muslims, many of whom have family members back home that they call on occasion.
Yeah, I have no expectations of privacy myself, and I know that just speaking my mind can put me in danger. But what about the people who are just going about their business, not causing anyone trouble, and just happen to call the magic sky-man by a different name than their neighbors do? Who will they go after next? Wiccans? Homosexuals? Intellectuals?
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11/24/2007, 10:23 pm
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Metis
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Re: LAPD to build data on Muslim areas
Radical Islam is fairly easy to separate from main-stream Islam as the former preaches violence and latter (more-or-less) peace.
Someone here mentioned Phelps and his “church” (who are mainly members of his crazy extended family) – he would be the Christian equivalent of radical Islam, without the suicide bombers.
It’s interesting that you mention the Bible and radical Christians in a thread about surveillance on Islamists as, of course, these religions stem from the same root. The Christian Bible, the Hebrew Torah and the Muslim Koran are all closely-related religious texts that arose in the Middle East among related Semitic-language peoples.
Mythologically-speaking the gods of the three above-mentioned religions are tribal gods and as such are generally adverse to peoples and cultures outside their own. Nomadic tribal societies are susceptible to loosing their cohesiveness and being assimilated into the peoples whose lands they migrate through. Thus, they need a strong ideal in order to maintain themselves unique from their neighbors. The origins of the word “ethnic” has the same root as the word “ethics” implying that one has moral responsibility only to members of ones own group. This, of course, is taken to extremes that can now be seen in the sectarian violence among Islamists in Iraq and, not too long ago, in fighting between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.
The original European religions were mainly polytheistic and somewhat more tolerant than the monotheistic Middle-Eastern religions. The only reason that Europe adopted Christianity was due to the fact that Constantine and Theodosius found it politically expedient to do so in the days of the declining Roman Empire.
Oh, and BTW (there is some of that 'net jargon for you), Phelps' and his followers whereabouts also is monitored by the police.
Last revised by Metis, 11/24/2007, 11:20 pm
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11/24/2007, 11:11 pm
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