By lex, on November 28th, 2010
The city of Portland is now willing to reconsider ** its previous unwillingness to allow its police department to cooperate with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force:
What is ironic is that the operation that found and stopped Mohamud is precisely the kind of law enforcement work that Portland’s leaders, working with the American Civil Liberties Union, rejected during the Bush years. In April 2005, the Portland city council voted 4 to 1 to withdraw Portland city police officers from participating in the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Mayor Tom Potter said the FBI refused to give him a top-secret security clearance so he could make sure the officers weren’t violating state anti-discrimination laws that bar law enforcement from targeting suspects on the basis of their religious or political beliefs.
Other city leaders agreed. “Here in Portland, we are not willing to give up individual liberties in order to have a perception of safety,” said city commissioner Randy Leonard. “It’s important for cities to know how their police officers are being used.”
The new found openness of the city’s fathers to federal cooperation has less to do with the vicious attack that Portland has barely averted than to the fact that President Barack Obama is now seated atop the national bureaucracy. They trust him, see. To do the right thing.
It’s evidence of a charming naiveté, really, the degree to which some liberals believe that terrorists only hate America when a Republican president is in charge.
I think that’s called “projection.”
** 10-15-2018 Original link gone; replacement found – Ed.
