Muslims Form Community Patrol. Some Neighbors Say No, Thanks.

[Guest]

Maeen Ali remembers the worry he felt when he first spotted the “Punish a Muslim Day” screed online.

The letter, mailed last spring throughout England, encouraged violence that ranged from pulling off a woman’s head scarf to bombing mosques. Each attack, the letter instructed, would be rewarded with points. The hate campaign prompted the police in New York and other big cities to expand patrols around mosques and Islamic centers on the specified day.

Mr. Ali, who lives in Downtown Brooklyn, said he was consumed by thoughts of his four children’s safety.

“That just boiled inside of me,” said Mr. Ali, 38, who moved to the United States from Yemen in 1990. “That’s when I said to myself that it was really important to come out and protect Muslims in the community.”

(the reasonm for the formation)

In 2017 in the city, there were 14 reported anti-Muslim bias incidents, according to the Police Department’s annual report. Last year, there were 14 bias-crime incidents recorded against Muslims during the first three quarters of the year, the most recent data available.


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/nyregion/Muslim-community-patrol-brooklyn.html

I can understand groups forming protective groups against hate crimes, but is this not in this instance an over the top reaction?

The 14 incidents are not even hate crimes or any form of criminality. In other words, there are not crimes. They are simple hostility. Which could simple be someone being critical of Islam. It can certainly be verbal abuse etc. Of course nobody should have to face such abuse, but many face such abuse daily in every day walks of life.

Hence why is a patrol warranted, when again it is lottery bases for helping to prevent said incidents. What is more concernin is whether this then if the power is abused by the patrols.

I would certainly back such community  patrols, if there was high levels of hate crimes, but last year there was not even one hate crime in New York towards Muslims reported by the police

Anyway, here is Timcast on this and other such community patrol groups