Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

editorial:

Police don’t need to ‘secure’ our Muslim neighborhoods

Comments by Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz that “we need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized” have caused a lot of eye-rolling among Muslims and police in Las Vegas.

His remarks have been roundly — and rightfully — rejected by law enforcement officials around the country, the Obama administration and the two Democrats running for president. From a constitutional point of view alone, the policing initiative that Cruz suggests sounds like religious discrimination. Besides, as Metro Police Sheriff Joe Lombardo scoffed during a recent meeting with the Las Vegas Sun editorial board, “How is an officer going to tell the difference between a Muslim and a Christian?” There are no distinctly Muslim neighborhoods here, given how followers of Islam, going back decades, have assimilated in Southern Nevada.

The fact is, our Muslim neighbors for years have been valued allies in our fight against terrorism, and are more so now than ever. If an Islamic State-sympathetic terrorist were to try to use Las Vegas as a staging area, he would surely be discovered and reported to authorities by any of the tens of thousands of Muslims here, says Mujahid Ramadan, a labor consultant who has lived here since 1961.

“A terrorist here would stand out big-time,” he says. “We’d know something’s up, and if anything, you’d need the police to keep us from going after him.” That’s how protective Muslims are of Las Vegas, Ramadan says.

Much of that goodwill has been nurtured by, of all people, the police.

“The cooperation that exists between our Muslim community and Metro Police is a model for the rest of the country,” says Aslam Abdullah, who has lived here 11 years. He is a member of the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada and the director and imam of Masjid Ibrahim, a mosque in North Las Vegas. “It’s a relationship that is based on trust.”

Abdullah and others speak gratefully about how swiftly Metro Police responds to vandalism targeting mosques — graffiti, and strips of bacon disrespectfully placed on the door knobs — and how quickly such crimes are solved. And he tells of how Metro officers have become comfortable participants in congregational prayer on Fridays, “not to keep an eye on us but to be a part of the community and our programs.”

Ramadan, who serves on Metro’s multicultural affairs committee, talks of how the police have come to see their role in the Muslim community as “90 percent guardian, 10 percent sentinel.” “They interact with us — in and out of uniform — and eat with us when we break our fast at the end of the holy month of Ramadan. But they also are sentinels and do police work, and they don’t sugarcoat it. But they’re not spreading people over car hoods for jaywalking, like they did years ago. Now we accept their policing because it’s fair and just.”

The foundation for today’s warm relationship between the Muslim community and Metro goes back to 9/11, when in the wake of the terrorist attacks, then-Sheriff Jerry Keller reached out to the Muslim community to groom relationships. Subsequent sheriffs — Bill Young, Doug Gillespie and now Lombardo — have built on that effort.

Today, the department’s Office of Community Engagement runs various programs to build and maintain positive relations between police and Las Vegas’ minority religious and cultural communities — Muslim, Sikh, Asian, Mexican, Filipino and others. Police brass and rank-and-file officers alike have standing instructions to attend events and meet with business and citizen councils, all with the intent of staying on top of community concerns and building trust.

Lt. Sasha Larkin, an 18-year Metro veteran, runs the community engagement office and is something of a heroine in the Muslim community for having built even stronger bridges. It came out of necessity: When she was assigned to a command area with two mosques, she was unsure of the protocols in dealing with Muslims.

“Can I run into a mosque if I’m chasing a bad guy? Do I take off my shoes before I enter a Muslim’s home? If I’m interviewing a Muslim woman, do I shake her hand or look at her in the eye? We have a duty to be respectful. I had a gap to bridge so I could feel a part of them.”

So Larkin, gregarious by nature, began visiting mosques daily, hanging out with Muslim women, and started learning of Muslims’ own concerns about police.

“I learned at the mosques that they were as uncomfortable around us as we were around them,” she says. She reassured them that police were nothing like what they may have encountered before moving here: No, we don’t accept bribes, so don’t even try. No, police won’t sexually assault you. It’s OK for women to drive here at night. And if you don’t want to remove your veil for a male officer, a female officer can be called to the scene.

Distrust among immigrants toward police, who generally are viewed as intimidating white men standing with their arms crossed and hiding behind sunglasses, prompted Larkin to reach out to followers of other world religions that were not well known here, including Sikhs.

“I tried to find every religion I could in the valley, and started going to their celebrations and their prayer gatherings — not to spy, but to open pathways for communication.”

It’s paying off. One faith group has turned in 16 reports of suspicious activity over the past year, Larkin says, including a perceived threat triggered by a car that circled the worship facility several times, bringing a fast police response.

“We are teaching these communities how to be alert, about what looks right or not, how to report it. We’re here to protect them as well as asking them to help us protect Las Vegas.

“We want these communities to come to the police, to trust us and to know that we’re here for them. We have gotten tips and acted on them. Have we stopped a terrorist attack? I don’t know. But nothing has gone boom.”

So should Metro Police patrol and secure our Muslim neighborhoods? Of course not. Instead, let us acknowledge and applaud the healthy, cooperative relationship that already has been established and which makes Las Vegas a safer place, built on trust and mutual respect.

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