Los Angeles County sheriff Lee Baca—who heads the nation’s seventh largest law enforcement agency, overseeing the safety of ten million people — is calling Rep. Peter King’s bluff on the congressman’s claim that the American Muslim community “does not cooperate” with law enforcement:
“If he has evidence of non-cooperation, he should bring it forward,” said Baca at a forum held today by Muslim-American groups in advance of King’s hearings on radicalization in the Muslim community. “We have as much cooperation as we are capable of acquiring through public trust relationships.”
“I sit on the Major City chiefs association as one of three chairs,” said Baca. “I also sit on the Major County Sheriff’s Association and I’m on the national board of directors of the international association for the sheriffs departments. Here’s the thing: I don’t know what Mr. King is hearing or who he’s hearing it from.”
King has said that active law enforcement offiicials are often afraid to complain publicly that Muslim leaders don’t cooperate with law enforcement, but that he hears the complaint often privately and from retired law enforcement officials.
“Muslim Americans in the county of Los Angeles have been overwhelmingly astounded by terrorist attacks — like everyone else — and overwhelmingly concerned about a non-repeat performance of that kind – and are willing to get involved and help,” said Baca.
Rep. King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, plans to hold hearings this year on the “radicalization” of American Muslims, a plan that has come under fire from non-discrimination groups, especially given King’s history of demonizing Muslims. People For President Michael Keegan wrote last month that the hearings risk “stir[ring] up further resentment against Muslim Americans,” adding, “We’ve seen the consequences of high-profile government investigations that target Americans because of their identities, not their actions. American’s don’t want to return to the fear and resentment of the McCarthy era.”
Think Progress observed last fall that, contrary to claims by King and others on the Right, American Muslims “have been integral in combating terrorism”:
As Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) said at an event sponsored by the Center for American Progress, according to the Muslim Public Affairs Council, “About a third of all foiled al-Qaida-related plots in the U.S. relied on support or information provided by members of the Muslim community.” Indeed, a Senagalese Muslim immigrant who works as a vendor in Times Square was the first to bring the smoking car that was part of the failed Times Square bombing plot to the police’s attention. And the father of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab — who failed in his attempt to blow up an airplane over Detroit last year — alerted U.S. authorities of his son’s “extreme radical views” months before he tried to carry out the attack.
Moreover, a recent academic study found that American contemporary mosques are serving as a deterrent to the spread of extremism and terrorism. The New York Times noted that the study found that “many mosque leaders had put significant effort into countering extremism by building youth programs, sponsoring antiviolence forums and scrutinizing teachers and texts.” “Muslim-American communities have been active in preventing radicalization,” said study co- author David Kurzman. “This is one reason that Muslim-American terrorism has resulted in fewer than three dozen of the 136,000 murders committed in the United States since 9/11.”