Racial Profiling | CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

Criminal Law Blog by Defense Lawyer John Floyd and Mr. Billy Sinclair

March 18, 2010

ARE WE ALL POTENTIAL JIHADISTS?

Filed under: Anti-Terrorism Lawyer — Tags: jihadist, Racial Profiling, terrorism, Terrorist, war on terror — johntfloyd @ 2:28 am

Arrest of “Jihad Jane” Adds Fuel to Fight Against Racial Profiling

By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

Leonard Pitts is an excellent columnist. He recently wrote a piece about Colleen LaRose, the Pennsylvania housewife turned Islamic jihadist, whose arrest made it abundantly clear why airport security is not only necessary but essential. Whether conscious or not, most Americans believe “terrorists” can be easily profiled by their physical appearance,” unusual” accents, the clothes they wear, or the facial hair they sport. “Terrorists” are not white, blond, and mainstream in dress and mannerisms. American media has convinced us that real terrorists are either bearded Arabs or dark-skinned Africans who dress like Muslims.

If Timothy McVeigh taught us anything, it should be that individuals willing to inflict mass casualties on Americans in the name of “government opposition” come in all sizes, stripes, and colors. The arrest of LaRose, dubbed “Jihad Jane” by either the media or law enforcement officials, reinforces the McVeigh lesson. A blond, green-eyed former Texas teenager, LaRose would not have triggered much, if any, interest from fellow passengers had she boarded an airliner for any destination in America with bomb-making material concealed somewhere on her body or in her possessions.

Collen LaRose and her counterpart, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez who was arrested several days after LaRose in connection with an international terror plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who offended many Muslims world-wide with his cartoons, are the very reason why all Americans must undergo strict security checks and monitoring before boarding airliners in this country and why there should be no “profile” for terrorists. As Mr. Pitts wrote in his column:

“[The LaRose arrest] ought to serve as a rebuke to the guy standing in the airport security line grumbling at how the TSA agent is running his wand over some dewy-eyed grandmother who obviously isn’t a threat. Even more, it should rebuke pundits like Cal Thomas, Ann Coulter, and Kathleen Parker, who, in the wake of 9/11 argued for ethnic profiling in airport security. Pat down swarthy, bearded young men with Middle Eastern accents and exotic headgear, they said, and leave the rest of us alone.

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September 7, 2009

RACE AND RELIGION: THE STARTING POINT OF TERRORISM INVESTIGATIONS

Filed under: Anti-Terrorism Lawyer — Tags: Al-Qaeda, COINTELPRO, FBI, Muslim, Racial Profiling, Terrorist, voluntary interview — johntfloyd @ 6:31 pm

Religious and Racial Profiling Justified in McCarthy Era Inspired Investigations and Tactics

By: Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

The September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City, and the reaction to those terrorist attacks by President George Bush’s administration, left this nation with a tragic and despicable legacy that has tarnished our great Country’s reputation and image worldwide. One part of this legacy was the government’s voluntary interview program that used race and religion as the primary factors for initiating contact with individuals which continues to be fueled by the faulty premise that these two factors create “suspect communities” from which real and suspected “terrorists” could be found.

The ACLU and The Rights Working Group’s 2009 follow-up report to the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination titled “The Persistence of Racial and Ethnic Profiling in the United States” http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/humanrights/cerd_finalreport.pdf (“ACLU Report”) specifically pointed that, while initially part of President Bush’s declared “war on terror,” the FBI “has continued to undertake problematic inquiries and investigations of members of the Muslim communities, Muslim religious organizations (including mosques), and even Muslim charities.” 1/

The “targets” of these investigations, more commonly called “assessments,” quickly learn that FBI agents will visit their places of employment, worship, and community centers where they pressure and harass employers, co-workers, religious leaders, neighbors, friends, and even family members to provide the smallest kernel of evidence that would implicate the targets, or someone else, in some kind of activity that can classified as a “threat to national security” or be charged as some form of terrorist activity. 2/

The ACLU Report pointed out that in December 2008 the U.S. Department of Justice, under the direction of former Attorney General Michael MuKasey, established “The Attorney General’s Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations.” These Guidelines, however, have a number of significant problems, according to the ACLU Report: “Most notably, they [Guidelines] open the door to abuse of power and racial profiling by allowing the FBI to open ‘assessments’ without any factual predicate. By calling their investigations ‘assessments,’ FBI agents can investigate any person they choose, provided it is done with the goal of preventing crime, protecting national security, or collecting foreign intelligence. There is no requirement of a factual connection between the agent’s authorizing purpose and the actual conduct of the individuals who are being investigated. FBI agents can initiate ‘assessments’ without any supervisory approval and without reporting to FBI headquarters or to the Department of Justice.” 3/ (more…)

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July 14, 2008

RACIAL PROFILING AND THE FBI

Filed under: Anti-Terrorism Lawyer — Tags: FBI, Muslims, national security, Racial Profiling — admin @ 8:05 pm

Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd Discusses FBI’s Push to Legitimize Racial Profiling

On July 3, 2008 the Associated Press reported that the United States Justice Department was considering adoption of new rules that would allow the FBI to investigate persons without any probable cause of wrongdoing. FBI officials said that being able to target for selective investigation Muslims, Arabs and other racial and ethnic groups that fit a “terrorist profile” would enable the agency to fulfill a post 9/11 Congressional mandate to “root out” terrorists before they strike.

The Bush administration has consistently issued statements that it does not support the targeting of racial or ethnic groups for selective investigation. The proposed new Justice Department rules, however, would allow the FBI to consider both race and ethnicity among the factors that, according to AP, “could trigger a national security investigation.”

The FBI informed AP that under its existing rules the agency must have either specific evidence or probable cause to believe a crime has been committed before it can initiate an investigation against United States citizens or legal residents. The new rules under consideration would greatly expand the agency’s police powers allowing FBI agents to begin preliminary terrorism investigations based on mined public records or general intelligence data to put together individual behavioral profiles deemed suspicious. Some of the factors the FBI would consider in developing these profiles would include but not be limited to:

Individuals traveling to regions known for terrorist activity;
Access to weapons or military training; and
The individual’s race or ethnicity.

“We don’t know what we don’t know, and the object is to cut down on that,” one anonymous FBI official told the AP in defense of the proposed rule changes. (more…)