Posted on 09/06/2002 9:38:11 PM PDT by He Rides A White Horse
Criticisms of law enforcement officials unfairly targeting Muslims and Arab Americans after the Sept. 11 attacks are valid, the head of the FBI's Philadelphia office said yesterday.
In an interview at an awareness seminar for law enforcement officials in Eastern Pennsylvania, Jeffrey A. Lampinski, special agent in charge, said the bureau had made an effort during the last year to learn about and connect with those communities, but he also acknowledged bumps along the way.
The bureau has from 7,000 to 8,000 agents working on counterterrorism, Lampinski said.
"I think part of it is that we don't know the culture," Lampinski said. "We offend people when we don't have to. We are guilty of cultural clumsiness."
Lampinski, whose office covers Eastern and Central Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, was one of several speakers at the Montgomery County Fire Academy in Conshohocken, where 250 federal, state and local law enforcement officials participated in an ethnic-sensitivity training course.
"Being respectful and courteous goes a long way toward building a relationship," he said.
The course's goal was to help local police departments get a basic understanding of the Muslim and Arab American community, said Patrick L. Meehan, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
"It's critical to have the trust and confidence of these groups," he said.
The FBI and other agencies on guard against terrorism have been under attack by numerous civil-liberties and ethnic groups regarding their treatment of people, particularly Muslims and Arab Americans.
"Comments made [to people being investigated] have indicated that there needs to be sensitivity training," said Hodon Hassan, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington advocacy group.
"People are a lot more willing to help when they feel the people investigating them are not biased and have at least some understanding of community," she said.
The most well-known local raid occurred in June, when FBI and INS agents raided a jewelry kiosk at the Gallery mall in Center City. Officials were investigating whether the store, Intrigue Jewelers, was involved in funneling money to terrorists abroad. The store was one of 65 nationwide included in the sweep.
Pakistanis living in South Philadelphia also have complained about the FBI. They have said that the bureau stopped people on the street to ask for visas and other documentation.
Lampinski, who has headed the Philadelphia office for four months, compared the FBI's problem understanding Muslims and Arab Americans as it fights terrorism with its problems speaking to Asians and Asian Americans about reports of Chinese campaign donations in 1996.
The FBI at the time, he said, was not "fluent in [that] culture. We would sit down with Asian Americans and not be able to understand them and read them."
Coordinated by the Philadelphia U.S. Attorney's Office, the daylong seminar included lectures and panel discussions with federal and state law enforcement officials, such as members of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, and the Justice Department.
"We have an obligation to be very vigilant and ask tough questions," Meehan said. "But we have a corresponding obligation to be professional and not overreacting or overpolicing."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact Benjamin Y. Lowe at 610-313-8094 or blowe@phillynews.com.
Perhaps tomorrow we'll read about another New Zealander getting a full cavity search at the local airport.
Guess what folks, these people have no plan to keep you safe.
Liberal sensitivity training is cheap and useless. Many Japanese fought against Japan, out of a sense of shame for what Imperial Japan had done. It was dishonorable to them what Japan had done. I don't get the same feel from these folks. They are always curiously silent......and I'm not talking about these half-hearted, lukewarm sympathies expressed by CAIR and others like them.
This nonsense has to stop. You are either for us or against us, whether you live in England, Germany, France, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, or the USA.
Trouble communicating, huh?.........Try this.
"We've got wind of some plot originating by one of your pals. You see, he plans to blow up (name your favorite landmark)..........We just want you to know, that within the framework of American jurisiprudence, that if you know anything about it, and it happens, we won't be holding a 'sensitivity training' class. We'll be holding you as an accessory to murder. Mass murder. Call us if think that there is a better option for you. Have a nice day"
Pardon the typo. It's been a long day. jurisprudence.
You!!!, yes you CAIR. (megaphone switched off). I'm sorry, was that a bit too loud. Did we hurt your ears? We're sorry, we'll take some sensitivity training. "
A group of people whose priorities are All Fouled Up.
Feel free to alter this statement as you see fit.
They hijack everything that is good, and turn it into a curse.
I don't mind this guy or that importing the best of what his/ her culture may have to offer. We can meet the liberals on these terms any day of the week.
Liberals want no parts of it. They insist on importing the worst of what the world has to offer.
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