Posted on 05/07/2011 3:33:34 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
NEWARK (CN) - The ACLU says the FBI and Justice Department blew off its requests for documents that will shed light on the FBI's "authority to collect, use and map racial and ethnic data in New Jersey." The ACLU says the FBI could use its secretive authority to spy on more than one-third of the population of New Jersey.
"(M)ore than one in three New Jersey residents could be considered 'ethnic,' and their 'behaviors,' 'cultural traditions,' and 'life style characteristics' potentially could be mapped or otherwise analyzed by the FBI," the ACLU of New Jersey says in its federal FOIA complaint.
The FBI's Domestic Intelligence Operations Guide, an internal guide on how to carry out the Justice Department's Attorney General Guidelines, "is the subject of widespread public attention, concern and debate," but its details have been "shrouded in secrecy," the ACLU says.
The Department of Justice released a rehashed Attorney General Guidelines in December 2008. The guidelines "govern the FBI's conduct on criminal, national security, and counter-intelligence assessments and investigations," according to the complaint. Also that month, the FBI released its Domestic Intelligence Operations Guide, implementing the Justice Department guidelines.
The guide "contains troubling revelations about the FBI's authorized use of race and ethnicity information in conducting assessments and investigations," the ACLU says.
"The FBI is permitted to 'identify locations of concentrated ethnic communities in the Field Office's domain'; to collect and analyze racial and ethnic community demographics, including data about 'ethnic-oriented businesses and other facilities'; to collect and analyze racial and ethnic 'behavior[s],' 'cultural tradition[s],' and 'life style characteristics' in local communities; and to map racial and ethnic demographics, 'behavior[s],' 'cultural tradition[s],' and 'life style characteristics' in local communities." (Brackets in complaint.)
The guide also "details the FBI's power to collect, use and map racial and ethnic in order to assist the agency's 'domain awareness' and 'intelligence analysis."
The ACLU says the "FBI's potential 'mapping' of local communities and local businesses based on race and ethnicity, and its ability to target 'ethnic communities' for special collection and mapping of information based on so-called racial and ethnic 'behaviors' or 'characteristics' raise grave civil rights and civil liberties concerns because they could be based on, or lead to, illegal and unconstitutional racial profiling.
"According to census data, more than one in three New Jersey residents could be considered 'ethnic,' and their 'behaviors,' 'cultural traditions,' and 'life style characteristics' potentially could be mapped or otherwise analyzed by the FBI."
The ACLU submitted six FOIA requests in July 2010, to six FBI branches in New Jersey, seeking records on how the FBI has been using the Domestic Intelligence Operations Guide to "conduct assessments and investigations in local communities in New Jersey" and "how the FBI is authorized to use the racial and ethnic data it collects."
Three months later, the FBI said it was "searching for documents" and when the documents were found they would have to be sent to an analyst. The FBI by then was way past its 20-day statutory deadline for response.
After another month went by, the ACLU got a "first interim release" of 298 pages, but the FBI acknowledged that "certain information was withheld from the documents."
The "FBI has not produced any additional documents or informed plaintiff of an anticipated date for the completion of the processing of the request," the ACLU says.
The ACLU wants to see all the records it requested.
It is represented by Jeanne LoCicero of Newark.
Time for another raid by the SEALS.
I think Hitler had the Gestapo do more or less the same thing before they began rounding up all the Jews...
It’s a LAW that you cannot profile, or is it just a no-no in liberal circles? Gee, what ELSE do they want to regulate — how much toothpaste you use?
It’s a LAW that you cannot profile??, or is it just a no-no in liberal circles? Gee, what ELSE do they want to regulate — how much toothpaste you use?
So even the ACLU thinks Eric Holder is a racist. Guess Obama’s post-racial thingy ain’t working so well.
It’s hardly a secret that LEA’s want to know where the largest concentrations of ethnic groups reside. From the data, one can assess what crimes are likely to be committed.
Empirical studies are difficult to debate. This is sometimes called the “new racism” which is not based on prejudice at all, unless it’s minority races’ own prejudices about what they ought to be.
America needs more of its black people to be like Herman Cain and Clarence Thomas, and fewer of them to be like Barack Obama and Snoop Dogg.
It appears that the freedoms we hold dear are being sacrificed on the altar of Islamic sensitivities.
It pains me to watch the jihadists use our own freedoms to destroy us.
There is going to be a time when we as a people will have to decide which is more important.
Sounds to me like typical ACLU bullshit.
They aren’t claiming that the FBI is currently collecting data by specifically targeting “ethnic” communities, what they are saying is that New Jersey is 1/3 “ethnic” and any data collected by the FBI using this guide is sure to target certain ethnic groups and minorities simply because they live there and make-up such a large percentage of the NJ population.
Well, duh.
What the ACLU should be concerned about is why the Federal Government doesn’t break down crimes committed by Hispanics into their own separate ethnic group. Last I looked they still grouped crimes committed by Hispanics under “White”.
So it’s ok by you to racially profile, categorize and report your findings as long as it’s the ethnic group you dislike?
Either you don’t understand what I said or you do and still feel that if there are any other folks other than White that live in an area, it is forbidden to write any reports or compile any data that area.
I feel that race shouldnt be a factor in any of this.
Well then how do you write a report about area demographics without including race or ethnicity?
A report on demographics is fine...
A report of crimes committed in a give area is fine...
As long as the two never meet.
What difference does it make what ethnicity a thief or an axe murderer is?
So in your world there is no difference between the Bloods the Crips the Latin Kings and the Boy Scouts in their choice of weapons and where they hang out. Right?
Plot the crimes on a map then concentrate the police in high crime areas, if those areas happen to be white, black or Hispanic then so be it but do so by crimes not by the demographic of criminals.
The conservative argument for crime control fails on this level because so many of you are afraid of brown and black people.
I’m all for crime control, I’m all for locking up honest to god criminals, what I’m not for are the cops simple going into the neighborhoods dominated by one race or another simply because, “that’s where the criminals are”...
You go where the crimes are, as I said before what difference does it make what color a thief or an axe murder is?
LOL! I love it. So many of "us" are afraid of brown and black people. The cherry on top of the obligatory reference to Hitler. I'm I having a conversation with Michael Moore?
You keep trying to prove your own twisted logic by digging a deeper hole. In your mind, just what is the "conservative argument for crime control"? I'm especially curious as I have not stated an argument in this thread on effective crime control.
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