Latest in Law Enforcement
The Office of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights issued new guidance related to “less-lethal weapons” including police batons, tear gas and tasers. The document is addressed to a wide array of stakeholders as it aims to cover all aspects of these weapons from design to use. The document is available here and below.
President Trump’s attorney general nominee William Barr says he has the “the utmost respect” for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, but during his confirmation hearings he would not pledge to release any report produced by Mueller’s office. Some see an inconsistency. They’re wrong.
Laurence Tribe has proposed a novel argument to assert that a sitting president can be indicted. Because I feel so strongly otherwise, and because I have such regard for Professor Tribe, I want to reply to his claims.
The election of a Democratic House of Representatives begins the process of holding President Trump accountable and brings into focus how, in the years to come, Americans should think about repairing the damage he inflicted. To us, Trump’s abuse of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies—where we recently worked—has echoes of the era that culminated in President Nixon’s resignation. But the events of the years after Nixon resigned hold important lessons for the current moment, as well.
Even before the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration’s travel ban, trust in law enforcement was eroding—and reaching a nadir—among American Muslims. Many view this administration’s policies as a source of Islamophobia and generalized suspicion of American Muslims.
A recent New York Times article on cyber crime told not the sort of data-breach story with which readers have become familiar but, instead, focused on vast unknowns in the sphere of cyber crime.
Editor’s Note: Rampage killings are a longstanding U.S. problem that is only growing worse. After many attacks, law-enforcement officials discover social media postings or writings that indicated murder was in the air, raising the question of whether this information could have been exploited to prevent the killing in the first place. George Mason's J.D. Maddox, who was a U.S.
Editor’s Note: Programs to counter violent extremism (known as “CVE”) attempt to offer non-military and non-law enforcement means to fight terrorism, working with communities to identify potential radicals and move them away from violence. Critics who have the ear of the Trump administration deride them as weak and ineffective, and programs at DHS and other agencies are on the chopping block. Eric Rosand, a non-resident fellow at Brookings and the director of the Prevention Project, calls for renewing U.S. CVE efforts.
Editor’s Note: American leaders have long recognized that police and other law-enforcement officials are on counterterrorism's front lines and that foreign governments play a vital role in disrupting terrorist organizations. Unfortunately, these two true statements don't always go well together: Many foreign countries have poor or uneven law-enforcement capacity, making it difficult for them to stop terrorism in their countries and international terrorists who might strike at the United States.
Editor’s Note: Terrorism is a global problem, but it is also a local one. Individual terrorists, particularly lone wolves, are often linked to their communities in terms of their resentments, ambitions, and targets. Not surprisingly, making local communities comfortable with law enforcement is a vital part of counterterrorism. Programs to encourage this, however, are often underdeveloped and under-researched.