Domestic terrorism was a foreign concept until after the 9/11 attacks. Americans did not imagine that one of them could be malicious enough to plan an attack against his countrymen. It is almost unbelievable in many nations albeit a sad truth. For this reason, the Homeland Security Department was birthed to aid this issue. Unfortunately, the department was faced with numerous challenges including that of racial profiling and centralizing the force to provide better service to its citizens ( Shusta et al., 2002).
The institution of terrorism as a crime that can be committed domestically has influenced the manner of law enforcement in the America. Policing has not been the same with the definition of terrorism as something that is likely to be committed by permanent residents or citizens of the United States. Firstly, it is an astoundingly perplexing realization to know that trusted members of the society who should be patriotic can be the enemies of a country. Men such as Major General Nidal Hassan succeeded in perpetrating dominated terrorism at Fort Hood due to the fact that they are in trustworthy positions on the nation’s army. Such an event thus requires policing to employ more radical and stringent measures in protecting the nation and its citizens. Indeed, American law enforcement has resorted to training its force once again on how to approach domestic terrorism. It has also encouraged the cooperation of bodies such as the FBI with the police while maintaining decentralized positions in order to apprehend terrorists more easily.
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The issue of racial profiling has continued to increase since the occurrence of 9/11. It has been perpetuated by both the government and other law enforcement bodies. Unfortunately, racial profiling increases racial tensions with public comments being made regarding certain communities such as the American Muslim Community (Ashar, 2002). Peter King, in 2010 made comments concerning this community as to associate them with terrorism in America. In so doing, he encouraged law enforcement and citizens to view American Muslims as terrorists rather than just normal citizens. Racial profiling is a strange concept we it brings even deeper confusion to the fight against domestic terrorism. This is because domestic terrorists are likely to use Muslims as bait and non-Muslims as the real attackers for higher success rates in their crimes. Efforts to curb racial profiling through The End of Racial Profiling Act of 2010 were dwindled by the Bush government with the claim that such a law is compromising to the efforts of counterterrorism.
Despite the failure of the EPRA Act of 2010, the American constitution does protect all citizens and permanent residents in its statutes. The constitution does maintain that its citizens be protected from unreasonable seizures and searches and that all be protected equally. Therefore, even though there lack specific stipulations on racial profiling, people of color can invoke core promises of the law in the American constitution to their defense. The 13 th and 14 th Amendments, the 1965 Civil Rights Act are among some of the laws in place for the protection of these victims. Associations offer extremely useful services to these victims. For instance, LGBT groups also participate in protecting public rights. As a matter of the law policing must not engage in searches without evidence of criminal involvement (Pantazis & Pemberton, 2009). The American Muslim Community, for instance, comes to the aid of victims of profiling where these events occur. The law does recognize such bodies in its stipulation and acknowledging treatment of Mindoro groups in the nation. Additionally, civil rights campaigns regarding racial profiling have continued to gain the attention of government and the law. These campaigns have led to the invocation of clear stipulations regarding treatment of people of color. Bodies such as the National Association Advancement for Colored People offer counseling and defense for victims of racial profiling.
Among some of the most helpful actions that could be taken to help victims of racial profiling would be the provision of clear stipulations by law to protect people of color. Without these, it is difficult for victims of racial profiling to prove their rights and defend them. Moreover, training approaches in law enforcement, encouraging officers to practice ethical behavior, could be useful for the same purpose. It is crucial that the issue not only is taught but also emphasized during these sessions. Furthermore, the law must require officers to present evidence of criminal involvement before conducting any search on people of color (Bahdi, 2003).
The Department of Homeland Security has been very useful in fighting domestic terrorism. Despite borrowing a number of ideas from other police departments and agencies, it has allowed better application of policies and coordination of ideas in dealing with this. The role of CIA and the FBI have been orchestrated to ensure that America is safer within its borders. Homeland Security HSS encouraged sharing of databases thus providing sufficient information to counter terrorism. In the past, the CIA has refused to share information with the FBI in incidents such as the Pentagon and World Trade Center attacks (Welch, 2006). Homeland Security has come to view such lack of cooperation is risky to the nation and required the participation of the different law enforcement bodies in connecting the dots. In this manner, it has solved more issues than would have been previously. Unfortunately, the task of counterterrorism is not a perfect one. The Orlando attack is evidence of some of the ways in which Homeland Security had not been perfect in protecting Americans. Homeland Security has so far secured the air, navy bases, and successfully monitored most of the American population making arrests before hits. For agencies, it is not exciting to have to share information, and most of them do this grudgingly. Nevertheless, coordination from all of these bodies has led to many successes in countering domestic terrorism
Conclusively, the Homeland Security Department has encouraged the fight against domestic terrorism. It has certainly made America a safer place despite all the challenges that it faces. Nonetheless, it requires more adjustments for better performance especially in issues such we racial profiling.
References
Shusta, R. M., Levine, D. R., Harris, P. R., & Wong, H. Z. (2002). Multicultural law enforcement: Strategies for peacekeeping in a diverse society . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Welch, M. (2006). Scapegoats of September 11th: Hate crimes & state crimes in the war on terror . Rutgers University Press.
Bahdi, R. (2003). No exit: Racial profiling and Canada's war against terrorism. Osgoode Hall LJ , 41 , 293.
Pantazis, C., & Pemberton, S. (2009). From the ‘old’to the ‘new’suspect community examining the impacts of recent UK counter-terrorist legislation. British Journal of Criminology , 49 (5), 646-666.
Ashar, S. M. (2002). Immigration enforcement and subordination: the consequences of racial profiling after September 11. Immigr. & Nat'lity L. Rev. , 23 , 545.
