Instructions: Responses should be a minimum of 250 words and include direct questions. You may challenge, support or supplement another student’s answer using the terms, concepts and theories from the required readings. Also, do not be afraid to respectfully disagree where you feel appropriate; as this should be part of your analysis process at this academic level.

Forum posts are graded on timeliness, relevance, knowledge of the weekly readings, and the quality of original ideas. Sources utilized to support answers are to be cited in accordance with the APA writing style by providing a general parenthetical citation (reference the author, year and page number) within your post, as well as an adjoining reference list. Refer to grading rubric for additional details concerning grading criteria.

Respond to Johnny:

State and local police face many problems in relation to threats from terrorist recruitment, local radicalization, racial concerns, and the ongoing concern of balance between civil liberties and civil rights. According to research conducted by Mark Hamm and the National Institute of Justice criminologists have concluded that within their work and textbooks on American terrorism names such as Kevin Lamar James would appear alongside Osama Bin Laden as the notorious acts of American terrorism is a growing threat that is matching with international terrorism (Hamm, 2008). Meanwhile recent studies of radicalization have posed much threat to local and state law enforcement as the idea that recruitment within the United States plays a large role in radicalization of prisoners within U.S. corrections institutions. This can be highly contributed to the fact that prisoners within the correction systems are often looking for meaning and identify which makes them vulnerable and an easy target for radicalization. Additionally radicalization is also linked to gangs in which the prisoner might seek benefit from being a part of a gang for various reasons which include acceptance, protection, and privileges (Hamm, 2008).

The United States intelligence community also plays a vital role in assisting law enforcement with the information it needs to identify the threats, formulate a plan, and combat the threat based on the data and intelligence gathered from its sources. Ideally after 9/11 the United States saw a need for additional security based on the threat level and created the Department of Homeland Security to better provide assistance in the homeland security efforts (Pike, 2015). The Department of Homeland Security saw a wide range of operations to include boarders and customs, counter terrorism operations, intelligence gathering, and even citizenship immigration concerns (Heighington, 2011). With the weight shifted to DHS for national security concerns and the idea that agencies are responsible for doing their part in intelligence gathering to combat the threat local and state governments were faced with additional stressors of meeting those demands from the IC (Ackerman, 2018). The idea that IC was able to conduct surveillance operations in line with the Patriot Act which was later replaced by the Freedom Act. This was ultimately used to grant additional powers to law enforcement agencies to conduct intelligence operations for homeland security efforts however was met with a little bit of resistance as the communities felt as though their civil liberties were being violated as law enforcement was now able to surveil them without a court ordered warrant (Department of Justice, 2019).

Additionally the tensions began to rise within the communities as many American blamed the Muslim world for the attacks of 9/11. Many citizens were ignorant of the differences between a cultures, ethnic backgrounds, and religions of middle-eastern Americans at this time. This resulted in Middle Eastern Americans becoming victims of violent attacks and hate crimes within their own communities. Additionally racial profiling also contributed to a divide between law enforcement and its communities based on the natural hatred that was generated toward Muslim Americans after 9/11 (Pitt, 2011). We have seen this challenge faced within law enforcement time and time again after a tragedy occurs. The shining example would be the black lives matter movement after the Travon Martin murder or the resentment against Asian Americans during the Vietnam War and Korean Wars. Law enforcement in both the state and local government ideally have challenges within civil liberties and civil rights when it comes to conducting their operations within the communities.

References

Ackerman, R. (2018, September 4). U.S. Intelligence Community Faces Four Major Challenges . Retrieved from AFCEA: https://www.afcea.org/content/us-intelligence-comm…

Department of Justice. (2019, July 15). The Patriot Act. Retrieved from Preserving Life & Liberty: https://www.justice.gov/archive/ll/highlights.htm

Hamm, M. S. (2008, October 26). National Institute of Justice. Retrieved from Prisoner Radicalization: Assessing the Threat in U.S. Correctional Institutions: https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/prisoner-radic…

Heighington, A. (2011). Homeland Security in Real-Time: The Power of the Public and Mobile Technology. Homeland Security Affairs, 1.

Pike, G. (2015). USA PATRIOT Act Still Raising Questions. Information Today, 13.

Pitt, C. (2011). U.S. PATRIOT ACT AND RACIAL PROFILING: ARE THERE CONSEQUENCES OF DISCRIMINATION? Michigan Soiological Review, 53-69.