Portland police refuses to ask FBI's illegal questions
Khoder bin Hakkin
hakkin at sarin.com
Fri Nov 30 09:28:13 PST 2001
We hereby call for publication of the list of (possibly illegal)
questions
that the FBI wants local cops to ask the swarthies...
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-113001port.story
Now Portland Comes In for Questioning
Probe: Oregon city and its police chief catch flak for refusing to
interview
foreigners on a U.S. list.
By LYNN MARSHALL and TOM GORMAN , Times
Staff Writers
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Even after a 32-year career with
the Los Angeles Police Department and two years here,
Police Chief Mark Kroeker says he has never
experienced the pummeling he is taking these days.
Law enforcement officers in the rest of the nation are
questioning foreigners about their possible knowledge
of terrorist activities. But Kroeker, worried about civil
rights violations, has said his officers will not join in this
task. His is the only police agency in the country to
refuse to cooperate for such reasons, according to a
spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department.
Because of
that
decision,
based on
advice from
Portland's
city
attorney,
Kroeker is
winning
plaudits
from civil
libertarians.
But he is
catching
flak from
all over the country.
By Thursday, City Hall computers contained more
than
1,000 e-mails. Half came from outside Oregon and
were, one staffer said, universally critical of
the city's
position. From within Oregon, 60% of the
electronic
mail chastises the city for refusing to aid the
investigation.
"I am appalled and embarrassed to be an
Oregonian,"
wrote one local man. "You . . . have completely
lost
perspective and what appears to be any remnant of
common sense."
And another: "We are disgusted and saddened. . . .
We
consider the city of Portland and the state of
Oregon to
be a haven for terrorists. We will discontinue
traveling
there as a company."
The director of the Citizens Crime Commission said
he
worries that the city attorney's ruling besmirches
the
city.
"Now it's a national story: Portland isn't
cooperating,"
said Ray Mathis. "It makes the city look bad."
Criticism also is coming from within the ranks of
the
Police Bureau. "We're embarrassed by the city's
decision," said Leo Painton, an officer with the
Portland Police Assn. "We're in a state of war,
and we
want to go out and do our part, to help solve the
4,000
murders they're investigating."
Chief Kroeker is reeling from the broadsides.
"I'm surprised by the reaction . . . and, to some
extent,
I feel I've been vilified," he said Thursday.
"I've never
experienced anything like this.
"I must say, it has been discouraging to hear the
level
of uninformed criticism and the lack of knowledge
of
all the work that we have done and are continuing
to do
to investigate terrorism," he said.
The uproar stems from a request earlier this month
by
U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft that law enforcement
agencies help an overwhelmed FBI to interview
about
5,000 men of Middle Eastern descent who have
entered the country in the last two years. The men
can
decline to be interviewed.
The Justice Department identified 23 residents for
questioning in Portland, a city of 503,000. The
Oregon
state attorney general and the local district
attorney said
they had no problem with Ashcroft's request.
Corvallis, south of Portland, also is not going to
interview 30 Middle Eastern men identified by the
Justice Department. Police Chief Pam Roskowski
said
she had no legal objections to the questioning,
but that
her college town of 50,000 would be better served
if
police focused on active criminal investigations.
Portland City Atty. Jeffrey Rogers had issued an
opinion that, based on his reading of Oregon law,
some
of the questions were illegally intrusive if asked
of
people who were not criminal suspects.
Some questions deal with the subject's sources of
income, education and foreign travel; others focus
more
specifically on the person's knowledge of
terrorism and
weapons.
Kroeker said he has no objection to questioning
foreign
men, with their consent, "as a fact-gathering
mechanism, a search for clues. This is a perfectly
legitimate investigative technique."
But because a few of the questions "abut the law,"
Kroeker said his officers won't ask any of them.
The
FBI said other agencies will interview the
Portland
men.
Portland Mayor Vera Katz stands firmly behind the
city attorney and police
chief. "I support the president," she said
Thursday, "but for the citizens of this
city to say that this [refusal] is a treasonable
act--that it's OK to break the
law--raises tremendous concerns."
The city's decision is "a courageous call--and the
right call," said David
Fidanque, executive director of the ACLU of
Oregon. "It's good to know there is
a police agency in Oregon that is serious about
not only investigating terrorist
activity, but also is serious about protecting the
rights of innocent people who
may be swept up in this very broad investigation."
Reaction on the street was decidedly mixed
Thursday.
"My father is from Saudi Arabia and all my family
is living in New York," said
hairdresser Karina El Hindi, 27. "I want these
[terrorists] caught, but I don't
think a sweep of people who look like me or my dad
will have any effect."
Portland's refusal to participate, she added,
"says that all people are welcomed
and treated fairly here."
John Peters, a 23-year-old graduate student,
agreed. "I want to be safe from
terrorists," he said while strolling through
downtown's Pioneer Place shopping
center, "but if we start questioning people based
on race or national origin,
where does it stop, and what's left of the system
once this is all over?"
Others figured that now is when laws can be bent.
"The questions are probably
offensive, but if they save even one life or send
a signal that America is more
vigilant now, I think that's much more important
than a legal technicality," said
Judy Rader, 38, an executive assistant at a
downtown business.
Kroeker left the LAPD as its deputy chief in 1997.
Popular among the
rank-and-file, he placed second to Bernard C.
Parks for the chief's job. Under
Parks, he had complained to colleagues that he
felt ostracized.
In Portland, Kroeker bristles at the notion that
his department is not carrying its
weight in the fight against terrorism. "This isn't
crazy Portland politics," he said.
"We're just trying to do the right thing."
Charlie Mathews, FBI special agent in charge in
Portland, said that despite the
differing legal opinions, Kroeker's officers are
actively involved on his
35-member anti-terrorism task force. "They're our
best partners," Mathews said.
"I appreciate the difficult situation he's in,"
Mathews said. "His attorney has
given him advice and he's following it, which is
what a professional does."
For all the civic debate over Kroeker's position,
computer programmer Phil
Jarvis, 33, said he can predict the ultimate
outcome: "This will all blow over in
six months. Portland already has a liberal
reputation and, at the most, this will
just become part of that."
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