This topic is important and relevant to modern society: because it discusses how law enforcement addressing of civil liberties pertain to adherents of domestic extremism. The reason for its importance is because it gives law enforcement the tools that are needed and the ability to address civil liberties issues regarding adherents that are involved in domestic extremist activity. Sahar F. Aziz (2014) an associate professor at Texas A&M University School of Law mentions in his article, that “over the past few years, federal government officials have expressed concerns over an increasing “Islamist homegrown terrorist” threat. High-profile cases involving “lone wolves” accused of terrorist plots on U.S. soil, coupled with public perceptions of Muslims as prone to terrorism, have triggered a flurry of Congressional hearings and executive reports recommending harsher counterterrorism enforcement focused on Muslim communities. Meanwhile, critics of “hard” counterterrorism tactics propose increasing community outreach to Muslim communities, through community policing in particular, as the solution to homegrown terrorism” (p.148). The use and implementation of community policing has become popular among policy makers seeking to be more preventive in …show more content…
Community policing in counterterrorism as currently envisioned betrays its rhetoric of empowerment and mutual trust, and serves as another weapon in the federal government’s toolkit that perpetuates the “Terrorist Other” stereotype. Until this stereotype can be stripped away from “hard on terror” preventive counterterrorism strategies, the benefits gained in the traditional local community policing model of the 1990s are unlikely to be realized” (p. 149
9/11 forever changed the United States Criminal Justus System. Most notably the mission forever changed for the State, city and local police departments. With the exception of large cities, police department were not trained or equipped to handle terror attacks of any scale. In the aftershock of 9/11, police departments of all sizes realized the developing terrorism threats would require participation of local police as well as larger agencies to not only respond to attacks but potently stop them. 9/11 also produced U.S. citizen sympathizers or “homegrown terrorists” complicating the definition of what we thought Terrorism is. The Aurora, Colorado Theater shootings, Fort Hood, Texas shootings, and South Carolina church shootings are all active
There has been much less consideration in the role of state and local government, which play a major role in preventing and responding to a terrorist attack. Community policing and other federal agencies can share many strategies such as transforming the agencies to take on new mission should be part of the homeland security strategy because fighting local crimes is the more effective approach in dealing fear and social disorder. When law enforcement are being trained toward a national role in homeland
The intention of this piece of writing is to show how the events of September 11th impacted law enforcement and security initiatives throughout the country. This article analyzes three national security law tests coming about from more terrific contribution of state and nearby police orgs in securing national security, particularly in fighting terrorism: hierarchical challenges, responsibility challenges, and institutional strains with customary neighborhood police capacities. Each one undermines the parity of security furthermore civil freedoms.
Before 9/11, law enforcement possessed the primary responsibility for combating terrorism in the United States. Law enforcement relationships and responsibilities have continued to be evaluated and redefined at all levels of government. They will evolve because of the continuous changing nature of terrorist threats, prevention needs and transforming operations and strategies. Terrorist groups continue to advance and pose threats in new ways each day. In the fourteen years since the worst terrorist attack on United States territory, citizens have undoubtedly become more cautious and accustomed to the inconveniences that result from the precautions and added security law enforcement agencies are now having to provide.
Law enforcement response to counter-terrorism fundamentally changed as a result of the unprecedented events of September 11th 2001 in New York and Washington (Kaldas, 2002, p61-62). This essay will examine how law enforcement has evolved in response to the changing nature of terrorism, with an emphasis on how this has impacted Australia. An analysis of arrests and subsequent
Racial profiling as method of counterterrorism is a major problem in the United States. Due to the damaging effects of 9/11 on the moral of the country and the present threats from ISIS, the Muslim-American society as a whole is being depicted in a way that classifies them as extremist terrorists. This fear of the Muslim society has become so dominant that the term “Islamophobia” has been adopted to communicate “fear, hatred and hostility towards Islam and Muslims.” As seen in a 2011 report on the West’s respect for Muslims, 52% percent of the American citizens who answered this poll voted that Western societies do not respect Muslim societies. (See figure 1.) The analysts of Gallup attribute this disrespect and fear of Muslim societies to differences in religion and political interests. (See figure 2.) America needs to reevaluate its counterterrorism strategy in order to account for and respect the human rights of its targets. If not, an entire society of people, Muslim-Americans, will be targeted as terrorists. The targeting of an entire group of people based on
Moreover, the issue of terrorism was believed to be dealt within the realm of the federal jurisdiction rather than the state or local jurisdiction(Davis, 2010). This couldn’t be further from the truth because the state and local police departments have a stronger relationship with
Foreign and domestic policies are not linear, rather the policies are connected in a circle, with each policy reinforcing the values of another. Domestic American terrorism in the prison and detention systems and governmental reforms are influenced by the mobilization and ethnocentrism abroad. The militarization internationally is justified by the domestic handling of the same cultural issues within the United State borders. The United States has strangely used a near Catch-22 to handle dilemmas. The United States has allowed perspective to become reality, whether with oneself or regarding issues abroad, specifically in the Middle East. Terrorism is the use or threat of fear for political or economical gain. An internal characteristic of terrorism is how dependent it is of perspective, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. To understand “terrorism,” a focus must be applied to the history, what drove an organization to commit such acts. Respectively, the Middle East has been a hotbed for the key word “terrorism,” especially because of 9/11. Subsequently, Muslims have been stigmatized by the United States as terrorists. The consequences spawned because of 9/11 require a look to the past to understand the present.
Local law enforcement can facilitate information gathering among ethnic or religious community groups with whom police have established a relationship. It will generally be citizens who observe the unusual groups of men living in apartments or motels, or unusual behavior at flight schools in their own community, and could be expected to report such observations to the local police. Problem solving models typically used in community policing are well suited for preventing and responding to possible terrorist activity. Using existing data sources, agencies can conduct target vulnerability assessments and develop risk-management and crisis plans. Community policing is not in itself a tactic or strategy, but instead a philosophical approach to how policing is conducted. At its core, community-oriented policing is based on law enforcement and the community joining together to identify and address issues of crime and social disorder.
In my opinion, Community policing is very important when speaking of domestic terror. In some circumstances, it has been the local police officers carrying out their normal day to day duties that have discovered ties to terror groups with the help of people in the community coming forward to local police officers they see every day and trust. However, I also believe terror specific training is vital to allow officers to see the big picture in the performance of their assigned duties.
Radicalization have various sources, from reactionary hatred of the freedom world, involvement in antigovernment militia movements in the U.S, to even mental illnesses. The main focus in this paper is to focus on Jihad-based radicalization in the prison system because according the FBI these groups are the biggest potential threats to American security. It is important to recognize all of the factors of why Americans are radicalizing in the prison system. First off, in prison, individuals associate themselves with other individuals or groups to protect themselves. They also tend to associate with those that are similar to them; share background similarities, family, ethnicity, religion, etc. Ever since 911, the government has increased its economic spending to combat and prevent domestic terrorism. In October 2003, the U.S Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, technology, and homeland security held a hearing, that warned the threats of Islamic radicalization in the U.S prisons. The subcommittee concluded that radicalization in prisons is a real threat and “prisons are producing a formidable enemy within. Eight years later, in June 2011, the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security held another series of hearings on the issue. In his opening remarks, Committee Chairman Peter King claimed that prisons have created "an assembly line of radicalization," which poses a major threat to the safety and security of the
Domestic terrorism has been a major threat in the US since the catastrophic event that took place during attack on 9/11. Following the aftermath of the terrorist attack, the US intelligence services and law enforcement agencies emphasized heavily on combating terrorism on global scale as international terrorism was views as the major threat to the public security of the US which caused the issue of domestic terrorism to be overlooked. We have seen many terrorist attacks since the attack on 9/11 that were planned and executed by individuals and groups born and raised in America. Some of those attacks include the Oklahoma City bombing, the Boston marathon bombing. There has also been increasing number of mass shooting by individuals that were identified as to be radicalized by terrorist groups abroad, the most recent mass shooting that was identified as a terrorist act was in Orlando where more than 50 people were killed (Alveraz, p.1). The cases mentioned above will be discussed in detail later in the essay. Although, American law enforcement agencies are actively conducting intelligence and operational missions to prevent international terrorism, however, the US needs to develop efficient tactics to prevent the rise of domestic terrorism. Otherwise, the United States may face a danger of the unfailing growth of domestic terrorism similar to some of the European countries; such as the United Kingdom. Consequently, law enforcement agencies should concentrate on the preclusion
8). Therefore, although the attacks of 9/11 generated alterations in our national defense strategies, it additionally adjusted law enforcement policies immensely (Brooks, B. E., 2010, p. 113). It is now more common to have squads of police officers, such as SWAT teams, with specialized training in preventing future terrorist attacks. With exceptions to some officers at the local level, many of these specially trained teams are made up of state and national law enforcement. There are several local law enforcement agencies throughout America that do participate in anti-terrorism training, but on a larger scale many of these local departments lack the necessary training needed to prevent such threats. Therefore, local police departments, who lack special training, depend on the departments that are qualified to aid them. Likewise, the training these lower level law enforcement officers obtain varies greatly than that of state and national law enforcement. Despite the quantity of officers in local law enforcement departments, it is essential that each individual officer undergoes the preparations that are essential to be well equipped for reacting to a threat of terrorism. These preparations are crucial in that local law enforcement officers are often the first responders to these attacks, therefore they should be familiar
The militarization of the local law enforcement first escalated with the passing of the 1981 Military Cooperation Law Enforcement Act, which allowed for greater engagement between the military and the domestic police (Coyne, 2015). The terrorist attacks on 9/11/01 provided an opportunity for an expansion of the militarization of the police (Coyne, 2015). In 2002, the Department of Homeland Security was formed. The Department of Homeland Security provided even more funding for local police departments to buy military-grade equipment and training (Hall, & Coyne, 2013). The police started to use more military tactics and technology and this has lead to the lines being blurred between the police and the military. The idea behind the militarization of the police is preventing further terrorist attacks from happening on United States soil (Nacos, Bloch-Elkon, & Shapiro, 2007). Even though there are some benefits from using military technology and strategies in policing, the militarization of police is more harmful than beneficial.
Domestic terrorism has played a major part in shaping the societies of the United States. The ideologies of individuals can become radicalized. This can lead to a movement. This movement involves the infliction of fear upon the communities, in attempt to make it a better world. It is critical to examine the events created by one man’s extreme ideologies in effort to better understand.