GOVT 480 DB FORUM 6 2 REPLIES DUE 10/09/2020

CAN YOU DO THIS FOR ME DUE 10/09/2020

You must post 2 replies of at least 200 words each to other classmates’ threads.

Each reply must incorporate at least 1 citation. Acceptable sources include the textbook, the Bible, and electronic sources (excluding Wikipedia).

Submit your replies by 10:59 p.m. (CST) on Monday of the assigned module/week.

1st reply

Nicholas Dziama

When referring to community policing and home grown terrorism, there is a common theme that you hear after the attack is perpetrated, “we all thought he was weird or extreme, but we never said anything”! communities are the first ones to see the abnormalities and missteps by those looking to perpetrate an attack. Big government isn’t going to be able to quickly and accurately identify the guy who is fired from his job in a small town and has changed his behavior, purchased many new weapons and is actively speaking out about an organization or a group. A neighbor, friend or loved-one will recognize these changes and be able to accurately articulate them to the authorities. The problem with this is that no one wants to be the one to call the police on their neighbor because they are weird but they want to be the first ones on the news the day after an attack to talk about all the oddities they observed over the ensuing months. These small communities are the key to preventing large scale homegrown attacks.

Community policing involves collaboration between police and community members characterized by problem-solving partnerships to enhance public safety.5 Community policing was adopted widely among law enforcement agencies in the 1990s, with a view toward improving trust between community members and police, and leveraging police resources through voluntary assistance by community members in public safety measures (David Schanzer, 2016).

Without community policing to prevent terror attacks there are few leads to go on or by the time the information gets to the authority capable of applying actionable countermeasures it is usually too late.

In 2011, the U.S. government developed a program known as Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) to address the emerging threat of violence connected with hate-fueled ideologies. Since then, millions of government dollars have been awarded for CVE programs throughout the United States.6 The CVE effort was illegitimate in the eyes of many community groups and researchers across the country, resulting in mistrust, anger, resentment, and alienation of those citizens in the very communities the programs were meant to protect and strengthen (Wyckoff, 2020).

By implementing programs like Countering Violent Extremism, the government is encouraging people to provide information and to local authorities based on irregularities and patterns of behavior that would otherwise go unnoticed in conventional methods of counter terrorism. It is very important that members of the community participate in these programs because they could be the singular link between stopping an act of terrorism from occurring or the death of many innocent people.

References

David Schanzer, C. K. (2016). The Challenge and Promise of Using Community Policing Strategies to Prevent Violent Extremism: A Call for Community Partnerships with Law Enforcement to Enhance Public Safety, Final Report. U.S. Department of Justice.

Wyckoff, R. (2020). TERRORISM PREVENTION THROUGH. Naval Postgraduate School, 1-113.

2nd reply

Celeste Freedman

Community Policing is a preventative crime measure wherein non-police officers assist in deterrence, such as neighborhood watch programs. Community policing involving terrorists could be dangerous for officers if it’s not just reporting suspicious behavior. Robots and home security cameras play a large part in community policing as well as humans.

I favor community volunteer programs with homeland security. I would prefer to see this collaborative work being done with professionals such as immigration attorneys, Paralegals, and other professionals whose careers interact with the Department of Homeland Security. But thorough background checks and training should play a considerable part in the program. A terrorist organization might inject itself into police activity to create a blind. A person who has been in a program for a long period can become friendly and unsuspecting, and therefore relax.

The stress of a community policing program and the possibilities of things going wrong seem complicated, but many community policing programs across the country have had tremendous success stories. There have been very few problems because the police work closely with each volunteer, and retired officers also play a critical role in the program as well as background checks and training.

I favor yearly background checks on volunteers just in case there is any questionable behavior that happens and isn’t reported. Also, I would have volunteers consent to a private background check without notice in the event of suspicious behavior or activity. What is unfortunate is that terrorist activity must not be looked at as if only foreigners will be terrorists. Today we are facing domestic terror just as much as we are fighting foreign terrorism. That being said, we are now dealing with people who don’t like the police. A domestic terrorist or group that has infiltrated community police could work in collaboration with terrorists and disrupt the society as a whole, making the program dangerous for our police officers. The dangers that a community police officer might face in a flash riot due to domestic terror can also endanger police officers who do not have the training or the equipment to protect themselves. We live in perilous times, and trust is a huge issue. If we can’t trust the police and can’t trust each other, who can we trust? We have to pray for our police and our communities that they may heal. And God will help them.

Psalm 118:8

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.