Mass arrests of Muslims in L.A.
2002-12-19 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
archershipsWhat the hell are they thinking?!? Even if you care nothing for civil liberties, who knows best who the "good guys" vs "bad guys" are in immigrant communities? What's the response going to be to police investigating leads regarding possible terrorists? You think that the next time Iman learns of a terrorist plot, he's going to talk to the authorities?
Fools. Bloody fools.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/americas/2589317.stm
BBC NEWS
Mass arrests of Muslims in LA
US immigration officials in Southern California have detained hundreds of
Iranians and other Muslim men who turned up to register under residence
laws brought in as part of the anti-terror drive.
Reports say between 500 and 700 men were arrested in and around Los Angeles
after they complied with an order to register by 16 December.
" People went down wanting to co-operate and then they were detained "
Ramona Ripston
civil liberties leader
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is refusing to say how
many people were arrested but said detainees were being held for suspected
visa violations and other offences.
The arrests sparked angry protests in Los Angeles by thousands of
Iranian-Americans waving banners which read "What's next? Concentration
camps?" and "Free our fathers, brothers, husbands and sons".
Official radio in Iran also reported the arrests and the protests, which it
said were mounted by families of the detainees who converged on Los Angeles.
Deadline
Under the new US immigration rules, all male immigrants aged 16 and over
from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria had to register with authorities by
Monday unless they had been naturalised as citizens.
Immigrants from other mainly Muslim states have been set later deadlines
for registration.
Community groups said men had been arrested in Los Angeles and nearby
Orange County as well as San Diego.
California is home to about 600,000 Iranians who have been living in exile
since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
One of the Iranian-American demonstrators in Los Angeles, Ali Bozorgmehr,
told the French news agency AFP that his community was being targeted
unjustly.
"All Iranians that live in America are hard-working people... They love
this country and all... are against terrorism," he said.
'Shocking'
Ramona Ripston, executive director of the Southern California chapter of
the American Civil Liberties Union, said the arrests were reminiscent of
the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
REGISTRATION ORDER
# Introduced after 11 September attacks
# Affects all males over 16 from a list of Arab or Mid-East countries who
do not have permanent resident status in the US
# A 10 January deadline will affect men from Afghanistan, Lebanon, Eritrea,
North Korea, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen
"I think it is shocking what is happening," she said.
"We are getting a lot of telephone calls from people. We are hearing that
people went down wanting to co-operate and then they were detained."
Islamic community leaders said many detainees had been living, working and
paying taxes in the US for up to a decade and had families there.
"Terrorists most likely wouldn't come to the INS to register," said Sabiha
Khan of the Southern California chapter of the Council on American Islamic
Relations.
She said the detainees were "being treated as criminals, and that really
goes against American ideals of fairness, and justice and democracy".
Fools. Bloody fools.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/americas/2589317.stm
BBC NEWS
Mass arrests of Muslims in LA
US immigration officials in Southern California have detained hundreds of
Iranians and other Muslim men who turned up to register under residence
laws brought in as part of the anti-terror drive.
Reports say between 500 and 700 men were arrested in and around Los Angeles
after they complied with an order to register by 16 December.
" People went down wanting to co-operate and then they were detained "
Ramona Ripston
civil liberties leader
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is refusing to say how
many people were arrested but said detainees were being held for suspected
visa violations and other offences.
The arrests sparked angry protests in Los Angeles by thousands of
Iranian-Americans waving banners which read "What's next? Concentration
camps?" and "Free our fathers, brothers, husbands and sons".
Official radio in Iran also reported the arrests and the protests, which it
said were mounted by families of the detainees who converged on Los Angeles.
Deadline
Under the new US immigration rules, all male immigrants aged 16 and over
from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria had to register with authorities by
Monday unless they had been naturalised as citizens.
Immigrants from other mainly Muslim states have been set later deadlines
for registration.
Community groups said men had been arrested in Los Angeles and nearby
Orange County as well as San Diego.
California is home to about 600,000 Iranians who have been living in exile
since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
One of the Iranian-American demonstrators in Los Angeles, Ali Bozorgmehr,
told the French news agency AFP that his community was being targeted
unjustly.
"All Iranians that live in America are hard-working people... They love
this country and all... are against terrorism," he said.
'Shocking'
Ramona Ripston, executive director of the Southern California chapter of
the American Civil Liberties Union, said the arrests were reminiscent of
the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
REGISTRATION ORDER
# Introduced after 11 September attacks
# Affects all males over 16 from a list of Arab or Mid-East countries who
do not have permanent resident status in the US
# A 10 January deadline will affect men from Afghanistan, Lebanon, Eritrea,
North Korea, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen
"I think it is shocking what is happening," she said.
"We are getting a lot of telephone calls from people. We are hearing that
people went down wanting to co-operate and then they were detained."
Islamic community leaders said many detainees had been living, working and
paying taxes in the US for up to a decade and had families there.
"Terrorists most likely wouldn't come to the INS to register," said Sabiha
Khan of the Southern California chapter of the Council on American Islamic
Relations.
She said the detainees were "being treated as criminals, and that really
goes against American ideals of fairness, and justice and democracy".
no subject
Date: 2002-12-19 10:02 am (UTC)It's too bad I'm not knowledgeable enough about law to argue whether the government has the right to detain these people; they'll probably claim something like "these folks aren't naturalized citizens, so they have no rights."
no subject
Date: 2002-12-21 12:47 pm (UTC)no subject
no subject
Date: 2002-12-21 12:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-12-19 12:10 pm (UTC)Numerically speaking, INS and law enforcement in CA have done more to piss on the constitution AND on the American way of life than these muslims have. In this case, it's a little bit like the ignorant, lazy lower class, suddenly armed with new laws motivated by zealous nationalism, detaining and harassing the upper classes.
In SoCal, that's how it is: most of these immigrants are doctors, financiers, business owners, living the American dream, and doing it a thousand times better than these boot-licking, bureaucratic, statist thugs that just made one of the worst investigational blunders ever.
no subject
Date: 2002-12-21 12:51 pm (UTC)...
Date: 2002-12-19 02:10 pm (UTC)=darwin
no subject
Date: 2002-12-19 03:19 pm (UTC)...
Date: 2002-12-19 03:33 pm (UTC)#1) Arresting people for violating laws is legitimate under our system of government. This assumes that they were actually violating laws, which seems plausible as not all of the men were arrested. If they were all arrested for being arab immigrants and not for other crimes, I could see the comparison to the Japanese Internment camps.
#2) The spin on this is completely and totally out of control. I'm quite sure that not every one of the men arrested was "muslim" and press which refers to the "mass arrest" of "muslims" and not "the arrest of law-breaking foreign nationals" has an implicit agenda.
#3) Referring to this as an atrocity is an insult to every person who has ever suffered an actual atrocity. While I may disagree with the INS policy (off the top of my head it seems practically stupid and politically suicidal), I do not agree that this is a racist, evil atrocity akin to the internment of Japanese or Jewish people during world war II.
#4) Re-read the article. It provokes such a strong reaction because it is loaded with emotional/moral statements which have very little to do with the actual issue(s) at hand. For example, what is the justification for the INS order? Does it have precedent? What does the government have to say about this issue other than that these specific people were arrested for crimes they committed? Any article that quotes only one side of an issue is plainly more propaganda than actual journalism.
=darwin
no subject
Date: 2002-12-19 07:50 pm (UTC)#2 ) While I agree the author's voice was definitely outraged, I think it was accurate to say that they were "Muslims". While you're almost certainly correct that some were not Muslim, I would be willing to bet that at least 75% self-identified as "Muslim". In any case, it doesn't matter to me that they're Muslim. What matters is that they were invited to register. In good faith, they complied, and were arrested. I think the INS has severely damaged the government's ability to get cooperation from not just the immigrant Arab community, but from any immigrant community. Since I think that friendly immigrants are the most likely to know who the "bad apples" are in their community, I think that the INS's behavior has severely hurt U.S. security.
#3 ) I don't think that most people are arguing for equivalence between the arrest of the "Muslims" and the Japanese internment; rather, it is, as the author writes, "reminiscent" of the government's previous overreaction.
#4 ) While the author may used inflammatory language, I'm not sure that even strictly neutral language would not have provoked a similar reaction. As for getting both sides, the INS doesn't seem very forthcoming, as it won't even reveal how many people they arrested.
no subject
Date: 2002-12-19 05:45 pm (UTC)Here's another one:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=564&u=/nm/20021219/ts_nm/attack_immigration_dc_3&printer=1
Looks like the government doesn't want to say anything
no subject
Date: 2002-12-21 12:43 pm (UTC)