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From Los Angeles Times

Obama administration shows how to treat a terrorist suspect

Bringing Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame to the U.S. for a civilian trial demonstrates to the world that the United States is willing to afford due process even to its bitterest enemies.

July 9, 2011

Republicans are livid about the way the Obama administration handled the apprehension and arrest of an accused Somali terrorist. But — with one exception — the treatment of Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame was a creditable balancing of national security concerns and due process. President Obama should resist pressure in Congress to make such an approach impossible.

Warsame was arrested April 19 and interrogated on a U.S. Navy ship before being flown to New York. He is accused in a nine-count federal indictment of supplying material support to Al Qaeda in Yemen and the Somali group Shabab.

Republicans have two complaints. They argue that bringing Warsame to the United States violated congressional statements opposing the transfer of suspected terrorists to the United States. The other grievance is that Warsame will be tried in a civilian court. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) combined the two criticisms: "The administration has purposefully imported a terrorist into the U.S. and is providing him all the rights of U.S. citizens in court."

It is easy to dispose of the canard that accused terrorists can't be brought to the United States because their trials would pose a danger to the public. Several terrorist trials, including that of 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, have been held without incident. As for the argument that Warsame shouldn't be given "all the rights of U.S. citizens," it is precisely that feature of civilian trials that demonstrates to the world that the United States is willing to afford due process even to its bitterest enemies.

If the administration is to be criticized for anything, it's the decision to hold Warsame on a ship. The structure of the interrogation itself was defensible. Warsame was questioned for intelligence-gathering purposes without being read a Miranda warning (meaning that nothing he said could be used against him in a criminal trial), then read his rights before a separate criminal interrogation. That is likely increasingly tobe the model for questioning alleged terrorists.

But holding a suspect on a ship creates a coercive atmosphere regardless of how scrupulous questioners are. Detention at sea also is reminiscent of the "black sites" used by the George W. Bush administration to interrogate suspected terrorists. Warsame should have been brought to the United States for questioning.

Congress already has barred the transfer to the United States of inmates at Guantanamo Bay, and the House has passed legislation barring the transfer of detainees from anywhere outside the country. Enactment of such legislation would foreclose the possibility of civilian trials like the one Warsame is facing. Obama needs to stand his ground and veto such legislation.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-trial-20110709,0,2310040,print.story

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From Google News

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Community policing a simple — and effective — concept

In the mid ‘70s, an experiment was conducted by the Kansas City, Mo., police department to test the theory that the presence of police officers in marked squads reduced the likelihood of crime being committed. In other words, more cops driving around in squad cars resulted in less crime.

At the time, the concept seemed irrefutable. But that was not the case. The findings of the study revealed that routine patrol in marked squad cards had little value in preventing crime or making citizens feel safe.

This seemed counterintuitive to what we had always believed about policing. Policing has notoriously been very reactive in the sense that police management's answer to violent crime in a certain area was to flood the ground with police officers. While that might play a small part in deterrence to crime, it was actually community-oriented policing that altered the field of law enforcement.

The community policing model gained momentum in the early 1980s when a progressive group of police executives recognized that the traditional policing methods were failing. It was a ground-breaking, paradigm-shifting idea that citizens of the community and the police could actually form a partnership to combat crime.

Perhaps you detect my sarcasm but I have such a difficult time understanding how this notion was so foreign to policing.

Prior to this, the police and the public were notoriously at odds with one another and the “us versus them” mentality added to the adversarial relationship. I tend to believe that the police felt that they were an island unto themselves and that it was their job (and their job alone) to keep the community free from harm. Never mind that they weren't always successful in doing so.

The community policing philosophy is quite uncomplicated. It derives from the notion that police officers and citizens of the community can function as a seamless whole by developing partnerships with those who have a vested interest in making neighborhoods safer. And who has a better interest in making neighborhoods safe than the police patrolling those neighborhoods and the people living in them?

The community finally realized that people best suited to protect their neighborhoods were those living in them and the police finally got it through their heads that they could not do the job alone. They began to seek help from each other — and lo and behold, success! Synergy occurs when two or more things function together to produce a result not independently attainable and that is the foundational philosophy of community policing. It's almost poetic!

There are some in law enforcement that still reject the community policing theory. They believe it was simply a trend that has exhausted its life expectancy or worse, that it is a “soft” or “touchy-feely” approach to crime. Others still believe it is the metaphoric equivalent to politicians kissing babies — that it is smoke and mirrors.

I'm not a criminologist but I am a self-proclaimed student of the masters. My credentials have been earned from years of studying community policing in both theory and practice. Police officers who develop partnerships with citizens enjoy the benefits of increased intelligence that allows them to do their jobs better. Citizens enjoy a more personal relationship with police officers and that leads to increased trust and information sharing.

The term “community policing” might be a bit overused but in its raw form, it is simply a philosophy of mutual respect.

The fact is that law enforcement has evolved over the years into a profession that takes a more modern and technical approach to solving crime. In the information age, we use computer statistics to develop intelligence to solve crimes. The criminologists who will study the evolution of this profession many years from now will most likely say that the turn of the century brought “intelligence-lead policing”. This is yet another tool that we can use to combat crime but I'm still of the opinion that people make the difference.

Aurora Police Cmdr. Kristen Ziman can be reached at KristenZiman@gmail.com .

http://beaconnews.suntimes.com/lifestyles/6392438-423/community-policing-a-simple--and-effective--concept.html?print=true

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Filling the gaps at Grass Valley Police

July, 7 2011

by Liz Kellar

Grass Valley's police department — like other city agencies — is facing a serious budget crunch in the coming fiscal year.

To help fill the gap, Police Chief John Foster is relying on the tried and true — including volunteers and on-call reserve officers — as well as soliciting other cost-cutting measures such as donated landscaping maintenance.

“It's called policing in a new economy,” Foster said wryly. “With revenue curtailment and the economic reset, we're looking at providing community policing services in a different fashion.”

Foster is actively recruiting new volunteers, for example, and noted that number has increased 40 percent over the last 12 months.

“We're using them in a semi-enforcement role, with parking enforcement and the towing of abandoned vehicles, as well as animal control,” he said.

Foster also is looking to solicit less traditional donations of time from the community, such as the contribution of Dave Kecy of Dave's Landscape, who recently began maintaining the department's landscaping.

“It seemed like the right thing to do,” Kecy said. “Nevada County comes from small-town roots ... People help each other out in times of trouble.”

“Our intent is to look at new opportunities to collaborate with private businesses, nonprofits and citizens, to keep us effective in providing quality services,” Foster said.

Toward that end, he has been meeting with the Nevada County Law Enforcement and Fire Protection Council, he said.

The police department is exploring reorganizing its command staff structure, possibly eliminating one of its captain positions, Foster said.

Traditionally, the department has relied on reserve officers to help out at special events or when there is a major incident, he said. It recently hired two retired officers who help out on patrol and investigations on an on-call basis, he added.

Former Grass Valley Mayor Gerard Tassone's hire (see accompanying story) as a Level III reserve officer “takes it to a new level,” Foster said. “We were targeting him because of his background, to assist us with forensic investigations.”

The department also looked at how officers are deployed in the field, targeting neighborhoods and partnering officers with volunteers to enhance neighborhood watch programs, Foster said. One roadblock is the lack of a civilian to oversee the program and coordinate with block captains, he added.

Foster encouraged anyone interested in volunteering in any capacity to contact him at 477-4600.

http://www.theunion.com/article/20110709/NEWS/110709867/1053&parentprofile=1053

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It's back to basics

by Boston Herald Editorial Staff

July 9, 2011

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis yesterday served notice that he's getting back to basics — the same basics that have made this city a relatively safe one in which to live and to do business.

Make no mistake, the stakes are always high for a city like Boston — and not just in the usual human terms of innocent lives lost in the crossfire of gang violence. This is a city heavily dependent on tourism, on businesses being able to attract clients, customers and a skilled work force of people who feel safe on its streets. And if even the perception is that a neighborhood, any neighborhood, is a free-fire zone, well, the entire city suffers.

So the steps Davis announced yesterday to hone in on gang-related violence, bringing to bear all of the resources at his disposal comes not a moment too soon. And, yes, we've had quite enough mayoral dog and pony shows that don't begin to get to the heart of the issue.

But the arrest of 28 “known predators” on outstanding warrants announced by the commissioner is a good start. Now if only the courts will help out here and keep these thugs off the streets.

What will surely help are the 64 new recruits who will be assigned to bike and foot patrols, putting more eyes and ears into community policing. And, Davis indicated he is “exploring” the possible increased use of surveillance cameras — and that can't happen fast enough.

“The Boston Regional Intelligence Center along with our state and federal partners are laser focused on the profiles of specific targets in the area known to be engaged in violent behavior,” Davis said.

And it's just that kind of coordinated approach that is essential to giving the “good guys” a possible edge over the “bad guys.” That too is basic.

But at the heart of any crime-fighting effort is that the good people of any community have to say “enough” and step up to share what they know about those for whom human life is a cheap commodity. Only then can real community policing succeed.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view.bg?articleid=1350530&format=text

Groups sue to block state immigration law

Matthew Webster said Friday that Alabama's immigration law strikes at his children. It's the reason the mechanical engineer from Alabaster is one of 38 plaintiffs suing to stop the legislation from taking effect.

"It turns out it's a nightmare for us," Webster said at a news conference at the Southern Poverty Law Center on Friday. "Having kids that are undocumented and that have fear of being picked up in a situation and possibly detained ... it's bad enough to know your kids are afraid of that."

Webster and his wife, Denise, are in the process of adopting a 16-year-old and an 11-year-old from Mexico. A Republican who said he voted for one of the sponsors of the immigration bill, Webster said his children could not receive their green cards until two years after the adoption process is complete.

"I'm very much against it," he said. "I hope it does not go into effect."

The 118-page lawsuit includes plaintiffs from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Immigration Law Center. The suit says the legislation, numbered HB 56 and signed by Gov. Robert Bentley on June 9, violates federal law and threatened to return the state to its segregationist past.

"HB56 is reminiscent of the worst aspects of Alabama's history in its pervasive and systematic targeting of a class of persons through punitive state laws that seek to render every aspect of daily life more difficult and less equal," the suit alleges.

In a statement, House Majority Leader Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, one of the co-sponsors of the bill, called the plaintiffs "liberal groups working to shield those who live here illegally" and said Alabama's new law was a model for the nation.

"When crafting the bill, we carefully considered existing law, case precedents and statutes and provisions al­ready approved in other states," Hammon said. "I am confident that the Alabama Legislature did its due diligence and approved a law that clearly passes constitutional muster."

Among other provisions, the sweeping legislation:

The bill is modeled on Arizona's SB1070, passed last year, and shares some similarities with it. In April, a federal court blocked implementation of several of the provisions in the Arizona law, including provisions that criminalized undocumented aliens working in the state and that allow law enforcement there to detain those they had "reasonable suspicion" of being in the country illegally.

Elora Mukherjee, an attorney with the ACLU, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said the groups would also seek an injunction to prevent implementation of the law while the court decides the lawsuit. Most of the law's provisions go into effect Sept. 1.

"In passing the most ex­treme anti-immigrant law in the nation, Alabama has shown the era of Jim Crow, a racial caste system mandated by law, continues as well," said Mary Bauer, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of 38 plaintiffs in the suit. "HB56 is the new Jim Crow. No doubt this law is rooted in intolerance and hate."

Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, one of the sponsors of the legislation, called that "complete poppycock."

"Ninety percent of that bill is a mirror image of what is illegal from the federal point of view," he said. "It is Alabama trying to play on a field we can play on."

The U.S. Census says about 2.9 percent of Alabama's residents are foreign-born, compared to national average of 12.4 percent.

Those opposed to the law said Friday that it violated federal supremacy in immigration matters and created "codified discrimination," according to Birmingham-based attorney Freddy Rubio. Rubio said the law would effectively require all Alabamians to carry identification with them at all times.

"For every walk down the street or trip to the grocery store, you need to remember to bring your papers with you," he said. "These tactics are most commonly associated with police states, not with a free country."

In a statement Friday afternoon, House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, said the state had been forced to act due to what he said was a lack of enforcement by the federal government.

"In Alabama, we believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all citizens," Hubbard said in a statement. "It isn't fair to the generations of immigrants who have come to this country legally for us to look the other way while others break the law and cheat the system."

Religious and charitable groups have also voiced concerns that provisions in the law -- like those that criminalize giving rides to undocumented workers -- would put their workers at the risk of breaking the law.

"It criminalizes acts of love and hospitality, commands from our God of many names," said Scott Douglas, executive director of Greater Birmingham Ministries, a faith-based charity group.

Suzanne Webb, a spokeswoman for Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, said they had not yet seen a copy of the complaint, but said the office would follow its requirement to defend acts of the state Legislature in court.

Rebekah Mason, a spokeswoman for Bentley, said Friday afternoon that the governor "supports having a strong immigration law in Alabama."

The ACLU, SPLC and NILC have also filed suit to stop similar state-level immigration bills from taking effect in Georgia, and challenges to the Arizona law are moving through federal court. Linton Joaquin, general counsel of the Na­tional Immigration Law Center, said the Alabama law contains provisions -- such as those related to schools -- that would need to be litigated regardless of the results of the other state's suits.

"The law has similarities and also differences," he said. "So it would depend on what the courts would do."

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/print/article/20110709/NEWS02/107090308/Groups-sue-block-state-immigration-law

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