Posted on 05/05/2006 8:58:24 AM PDT by wmileo
An exciting proposal to strengthen national security at the local level, born three weeks after 9/11, is languishing in the Department of Homeland Security's bureaucracy, says its originator, well-known character actor Robert Davi.
In an exclusive interview with NewsMax, Davi – star of the TV series "Profiler" and scores of films – reveals that he has been pushing his idea for a nationally organized group of citizens working with the FBI and local law enforcement to monitor threats to national and local security.
He compares the group – which he calls Civilian Patrol 93 in homage of the heroes of Flight 93 who are now immortalized in the film "United 93” – to a neighborhood watch group organized on a national scale under the supervision of the Department of Homeland Security.
Davi said the proposal, which has wide support among FBI agents across the country, remains stalled somewhere in the upper reaches of the department's bureaucracy.
Davi approached then-Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge three years ago and submitted a presentation for implementing his idea. The change in leadership at the department, however, put a crimp in getting the proposal approved. "Everyone at Homeland Security that works with counter-terrorism says this is the missing piece to homeland security,” Davi told NewsMax.
"They were really excited about it, but then they changed leadership and that leadership went this way and that way so it's been one frustration after another.”
Davi explained that after a modest background check and brief training sessions by the FBI and local law enforcement, volunteers would keep tabs on their areas and pass on any information about suspicious activities to the FBI or local law enforcement officials.
"It amounts to helping law enforcement on a national level," he said. "Why is this idea that's been around for three years not taken?"
He cited the existence of such groups as the MS13 gangs [the El Salvador-based La Mara Salvatrucha] involved in the drug trade and believed to be cooperating with al-Qaida, and said Civilian Patrol 93 would help law enforcement deal with them on a local level. "The country needs this. It's a volunteer thing. It's not going to cost the government a lot of money except in terms of the FBI's involvement. So many people have said, ‘I want to sign up.’ This is something that should have been embraced immediately.
"I'm sure if somebody higher up or the President heard about it, they'd ask 'Why are we not doing this?'"
Robert Davi is an excellent actor, and a conservative who has been one of the bave few outspoken conservatives in Hollywood. I think at one time he was co-chair of the Wednesday Morning CLub, a conservative group of Hollywood types. Robert Duvall was co-chair as well.
The idea sounds good to me. There are plenty of ex-military/law enforcement who would be ideal. I like the idea of this that is a citizen's group. We need more actors like him and less Tim Robbins in the world.
It's a GREAT idea. That's exactly why it won't be adopted.........
"bave" should be "brave". Sorry my fingers work faster than my brain. (Well there a lot of things that work faster than my brain. My mouth more often than not, being one).
If amateurs can do their jobs, then why must taxpayers fork out so much for their professional services?
The forces of order prefer crime, invasion, and terrorism to vigilantism.
The solution to many of our problems lie outside of government.
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I work in Northern Virginia and went to a resturant in Centerville called Sweetwater Tavern. There was Robert Duvall! Apparently he goes there quite a lot. He is much thinner than I expected - must be all that salsa dancing. He is said to keep a horse farm in the area also.
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"Everything else aside Mrs. Lincoln, did you enjoy the play"
Robert Davi needs to hook up with The Minutemen.
I agree; he's an intriguing cross between Michael Madsen and Don Gordon.
The difficulties of typecasting is more likely. Even our some of most outstanding actors can have a hard time with the "character" actor label.
He looks like Henry Silva in that picture.
Bush would probably consider them vigilantes.
It sounds just like our County Sheriff's Posse - a group of unpaid volunteers willing to undergo background checks and training so we can help the Sheriff accomplish his mission. The only volunteers I know of who work with the Feds is a group called the Coast Guard Auxiliary, but if the Feds allow those volunteers to help then the precedent is set.
Here's a 2004 interview with him on Front Page Magazine. He sounds like a genius.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15455
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