New law lets Iraq begin crackdown

Washington Times ^ | 7/08/04 | Dan Murphy, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

[kattracks]

BAGHDAD -- Yesterday's announcement of a new national-security law is the most dramatic in a string of moves by Iraqi officials, both local and national, to get tough on crime and insurgents.
    In Baghdad, the police and Interior Ministry are conducting large-scale sweeps throughout the city to arrest criminal suspects, while in the Shi'ite shrine city of Najaf, local officials have imposed a 7 p.m. curfew to deal with insurgents.
    Local judges, meanwhile, have reinstated the death penalty that U.S. occupation authorities had suspended, and the Interior Ministry says it soon will begin removing tens of thousands of squatters from government buildings.
    Iraqi public opinion is broadly supportive of almost any measure that could restore a sense of security.
    "The U.S. never did anything to stop the gangs," said Mohammed Hassan, a fruit vendor in Baghdad's tough Bettawain neighborhood, where Iraqi forces arrested more than 150 suspects last week. "I'll support [Prime Minister Iyad] Allawi if he keeps it up."
    Dealing with crime or socially sensitive issues, such as squatters, largely was avoided by coalition authorities, a practice dating back to the failure to control looting in the wake of the invasion.
    "I don't distinguish between insurgents and criminals -- their targets are the same, the Iraqi people," said Interior Minister Falah Hassan al-Nakib, who is in charge of Iraq's domestic policing and intelligence operations.
    At the street level, the new government is starting to use tough tactics against criminals rarely seen since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Most Iraqis are delighted that Mr. Allawi has vowed to reinstate the death penalty and say the United States was too soft on criminals.
    "Maybe people were reluctant to provide information to non-Iraqis," said Col. Adnan Aziz, an Interior Ministry spokesman. "Now we're rebuilding our security systems, which were dissolved after the invasion, and people respect us."
    On the day it took office, June 28, the new government sent its forces to make mass arrests in Bettawain, a central Baghdad neighborhood that is home to many Sudanese immigrants and is seen by Baghdad residents as a hotbed of criminal activity.
    The operation was commanded by Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal, a Kurd who helped lead the effort against the Ansar al-Islam -- an al Qaeda-linked terror group in the Kurdish north -- before the U.S. invasion.
    Gen. Kamal assembled a team two months before the transfer of sovereignty to pay informants and gather intelligence on kidnap gangs and thieves in Bettawain.
    About 165 men were arrested in the raids, of whom 65 are still in detention. These detainees have confessed to crimes ranging from theft to kidnapping, rape and murder.
    

[Aspernor Laevus]

"Most Iraqis are delighted that Mr. Allawi has vowed to reinstate the death penalty and say the United States was too soft on criminals."

The Death Penalty? Isn't that kind of a step back from the infamous Pantie Torture? And I thought these Iraqi's meant business.

[freethinkingman]

There is a lesson in here on policing. I recently heard an interview from the head of NYC police forces during the Gullianni rule/crackdown, I forget his name. Anyway the major sea-change occurred when the police started rousting guys on the street corner that they used to let slide. They found when they stopped people on the street and asked for an ID from the supposedly innocent they would find many things. One being if the guy had any warrants, also they confiscated lots of guns from drug dealers doing this, this simple function cut back on the amount of killings because the corner drug dealers were afraid to "carry". So they would have to run up to the apartment to get a gun to kill a guy thus delaying and stringing out that decision making process.

I know I am missing some other major points the guy made. This guy also had been to Iraq helping train forces there so we can have some hope that the Iraqis well eventually get a handle on this crap.

Sorry post got so long winded. I wish I could remember where I heard this and could link the interview but I forget.Maybe someone else will remember?

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

This is from his bio.

New York City's law enforcement strategies have become models for other cities around the world, particularly the CompStat program, which won the 1996 Innovations in Government Award from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. CompStat allows police to statistically monitor criminal activity on specific street corners as well as citywide, holding precinct commanders accountable for criminal activity in their neighborhoods. Because this data is updated constantly, it enables the police to become a proactive force in fighting crime, stopping crime trends before they become crime waves that negatively effect the quality of life for neighborhood residents.