I
agree with you Molly, this is scary stuff. As I understand it, the police
chief in Portand Oregon has refused to co-operate with FBI on this
investigation. I would hope that our new Mayor and City Council
members would want our own police department to act with great caution before
handing over any locals to disappear into the yawning void of a national witch
hunt. At least, let us use our own local police agencies to demand
that we can keep track of each and every local who is detained. If
there are arrests, let us keep them in local jails, on local charges, where the
media can keep track of them and demand that due process is
observed. If the FBI is not willing to accept this, then I say: no
co-operation. Personally, I am not willing to sit idly by while our civil
liberties are destroyed.
Dean Zimmermann
Commissioner, Mpls Park & Rec
Board
City Council Member, elect Ward
6
612-722-8768
-----Original Message-----From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2001 6:39 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Mpls] more ethnic profiling concerns
I'm more than a bit outraged that Ashcroft and his partner in crime, Heffelfinger, have decided to "voluntarily" question 5,000 more people when there are currently 1,200 Middle Eastern men in custody who were picked up by authorities in a nationwide sweep following 9/11. These men have not been charged with anything and, according to their families, have disappeared into the system with the federal government providing absolutely no information about them or their whereabouts to the media, their families, or anybody. It seems the federal government is completely unaccountable to anyone when it comes to questioning and detaining Middle Easterners.
I'm getting to the local point of this (so relax, David!). There are approximately 200 young men in the Twin Cities area who are being asked for "voluntary" interviews. As part of the profile, Ashcroft is looking for single men who arrived alone in this country. So, what happens if, during the questioning, the feds think these men "may" have information related to the terrorist attacks, and these men disappear into the system like the other 1,200? With no families in this country, they could literally vanish off the face of the earth.
Any legal minds out there who might know how to keep tabs on the status of the 200 men locally? I just feel like SOMEONE should be looking out for their rights since Ashcroft and Heffelfinger don't seem too concerned. I'd be happy to take the lead on compiling a list and tracking system, and with making phone calls and following up on the interviews and what happened to the men who did/didn't participate. I'm just not sure how to get the ball rolling, or if in fact another group or entity is already working on this.
Molly Schultz
