tv Public Affairs Events CSPAN December 20, 2016 7:15am-9:16am EST
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the reality is, there hasn't been a very successful examination of why "prevent" did not work. we have several anecdotal examples that show that it has not been a community-led program. it is conceived in an echo chamber, ignored community concerns and deployed without the community-buy-in. the government's mantra may be community led but claiming it is a wide support for community efforts is misleading and cla claiming it is a community effort is out right fix shun.
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domestic terrorism comes from many sources, including groups with violent and racist agendas. cde programs, as we know them, address a problem that is proportionally small within the larger landscape of domestic terror. not minimizing the threat that exists but putting it in its proper context before we decide we are going to launch millions and millions of dollars with the expenditure that potentially violates people's lives. on this path, we are told there are indicators like grievances with u.s. government foreign policy, that is often an indicator we see even though our government tells us indicators are not used.
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we look for off ramps to prevent an act of violence. an unsound theory feeding a cottage industry operates with major think tanks and the price tag of unknown millions of taxpayer funded grants. i say unknown because it is difficult to determine how much is being spent on cde programs. congress stepped into the game by allocating 9 million one year and 8 million another. 10 million was made for community grants just now getting ready to be awarded. it is a particular problem in my community. these programs simply further securetize the relationship between arab b-americans and american muslims. when secretary johnsson visits
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local mosques to talk about community resilience while in dhs, markets such visits with dhs in dearborn, referring to the wonderful city of dearborn, michigan, second only to new york city in terms of the people on the watch list, roughly 90,000 people. it has the highest concentration of arab-americans in the entire country. they view our community as a specific, unique domestic terror threat. this is profiling from the highest level of government. there have regrettably been some people traveling to visit al shabab, they are limited in number. we must demand better accountability measures from federal, state and local municipalities. a securitized relationship with my community and the programs like cde that it feeds stoke
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public attacks. while this is something we should always work to oppose and counter, we should be particularly concerned about this in light of the most recent surge of hate crimes. progra manyi programming should have a policy of do not harm. the president of our institute, jim zogbe, is fond of saying we have a successful cde program, the american experience. we are not having the same experiences as france and other countries. with cde, kids hoff never seen themselves as anything but american are now being asked to be vigilant, because they may, in fact, be quote, at-risk youth. this is not only ineffective. it is harmful.
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programs of this nature require more analysis and oversight than they have received. the members of congress have began to look at these issues and provide some oversight. the government accounting office is conducting a current review with the report expected to be out in the spring attempting to figure out what actually is happening. we're pleased to see that the role that congress will play in this area is being stepped up. i just want to mention this to you because it is like the point about the prevent program. we were told srcs and i think they have officially announced that publicly, has been disbanded. the fbi will not be engaged with src. we are told prevent is not what is happening. the reality is, there is a program currently in los angeles that looks exactly what srcs have been described to be. because it is not federal-led, we are told this is different.
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the pivot produces the same end result. that is something to be very concerned b i started by telling you about cde. i want to close with how you two are engaged on this issue. the reason why is i think you should oppose it for the fact it is profiling and discrimination, government waste and inefficiency and violates individual privacy and it has had a disparate impact on people in my community. as we have often said, we happen to be the canary in the coal mine. there are reasons why every american should be concerned about what our government is doing in this regard. >> maya, nathank you. in my high school class, four of my closest friends went into law enforcement. they are all missouri state highway patrol. there is not a day that goes by
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that i don't think about them and worry about them, because they have to deal with the public. which, if you have spent any time in law enforcement can be a challenge, i know. we ask our folks in law enforcement essentially to walk this very fine line between protecting us from murders, rapists and thiefs and other criminals on the one hand. on the other hand, we expect them to constantly keep our rights in mind and not violate our rights. that is a tension that we, law enforcement, deal was on a day in and day out basis. there is nothing easy about that job. i personally am grateful to both my friends in high school hoff committed the better part of their public lives to law enforcement. i am very grateful for what you do over in month ghomry county. it is obvious the leadership in
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montgomery county is very concerned about this problem. they have invested time, money, and resources in a concern about extremism within the government and what it might lead to. we would be grateful if you could give us the law enforcement perspective and what the experience has been in montgomery county and what you are trying to achieve right now. >> i want to thank the institute for including me and law enforcement in in discussion. as i look around this diverse panel and i hear the discourse and the debate and the disagreement, it is exactly where we need to be. we are in this together. it's very challenging. i don't think there is an easy answer. we can't ignore this problem. we have to lead through it. there is only one way to lead t through it. that's together. i am going to talk a little bit
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about, i believe, for policing in montgomery county and a lot of agencies, to a large degree, this is an extension of community policing. when i say that, what do i mean? there is a problem and there is a very real threat and it's something that we can't ignore. it is something that we have a responsibility to do something about. we need to protect the people in our communities. so as i think mike said in the very beginning, how do we do that? how do we do that while we honor the constitution, while we create no harm. i like the way you said that. we should not create harm. when we are done, we should be better than where we started. leadership is leaving it better than how you found it. so i like that. i'll take that away from today. we shouldn't create harm. i've heard a lot today and i've heard over the years that there has been harm created on the federal, state, and local level.
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there is very significant concern today more than ever about that, particularly post election. one of the things mentioned early on, and something i thought about before preparing for today, is the trial on going with dylann roof. i hate to even say his name, because i think that there is just an element of evil there in what happened and how it happened. one of the things that we know iknow, in a lot of these events that occur, there are warning signs and after the fact, a neighbor, a teacher, a coach, a parent, a sibling will say, you know what, golly, i saw the person was increasingly isolated. i saw these note that is were threatening in nature. i saw a lot of changes and their approach to things. i saw things on social media.
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i saw him go in the hardware store. i saw on his facebook page, he was buying guns and ammunition. he was increasingly agitated. we know there are some things we can learn after these events occur. so the idea of see something, say something to me is oversimplifying. almost like in the old days, say no to drugs. well, that's great. i agree with that. that doesn't really address a very complex, very difficult challenging problem, right? the same thing with see something, say something. that sounds great. if you see something, say something. who do you say it to. how do you structure that conversation? to start with, there has to be trust. many of the communities that need us the most in law enforcement trust us the least. think about that. the communities that need us the most trust us the least. we are already right off the bat have a pretty significant challenge to overcome. because many of those
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communities that need us are not willing or interested or are fearful to even report crimes, maybe because of the countries of their origin, because where they came from, maybe because of experiences they had here in the united states. we need people to engage with us to be able to report crimes, to be witnesses to crimes, to prevent, provide information so we can do a better job protect tlg communiti protectinning theprotect protecting their communities and protecting them. there are a couple myths that i have thought of and that i have heard today. radicalization and violent extremism, one of the myths that i would say are not muslims. somehow in our the condition tri that has been the narrative. it continues to be. necessary not our narrative. i can assure you. we are brothers and sisters in our communities. i couldn't more strongly say we are with you. we are together in this effort,
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in this initiative. it has to be that way. it is not us and them f it becomes that, we are not going to be very successful. to some degree, that has occurred. how do we overcome that, build trust and build relationships? easier said than done. community policing sound great. how do we find ways to build ties with our community? a lot of what you have heard is a part of our model, building resilience. i am going to go over these slides very quickly with hedi miramadi, i will call a subject matter expert who helped montgomery county develop some of these conversations, engage a lot of different people, particularly in the faith community, not just muslim community but all the faith communities. we have a very diverse community in montgomery county. engaged a very large number of people. another myth is that law
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enforcement, ac centrieccentric. i would say very strongly, ours is a community led initiative. it is not government led. we don't have these committees and panels and surveillance effort. a lot of things that have been referenced in the federal level and some of the very real examples of abuse and mistakes and hurt and harm that have occurred, we are very intentionally trying not to do any of those things. there is a collaborative effort involving a lot of people in the community. this is reference jay johnsson and some of his visits. this is a visit where there was a large gathering of people in our community and some of the areas, main pillars if you will focus on very similar to community policing, is engagement, education and training, very specific, a referral process, intervention and the example i like to give.
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we're not qualified to give that. i'm not a hippa expert, a mental health expert or a psychologist. i'm not the appropriate person to do interventions. there are examples of people, this happens almost daily in our schools and throughout the country and locally in montgomery county where there is an opportunity, where there is trust. where there is a relationship and where we can do intervention? maybe a kid that wants to harm somebody and has taken additional steps to do that. so how can we be effective in navigating through those things but we're not the primary ones leading this effort. we prevent violent acts o
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