Suspicious Activity Reports and The Surveillance State
Suspicious Activity Reports and The Surveillance State
i
ii
iv
v v
vi
1
2
3
Progr am parti
cipant sreported av ari
etyofencount ers,in- I
talsopublishedAAAN’ sfir
st(andst
il
lonly)book,T
owar ds
cludingr aci
alpr ofi
li
ngandhar as smentdur i
ngt raf
fi
cs tops, theSun,⁴writt
enandedi tedbyOdeh,whi chdescr
ibes(in
thet argeti
ngoff amily-owneds toresandot hers mallbus i
- ArabicandEngl i
sh)thefoundingofbotht heAWC andi ts
nes ses,and U. S.ci t
izenship delay scaus ed byt hecov ert groundbr
eaking oralhi
story wri
ti
ng pr
oject,and i
ncludes
Cont roll
ed Appl i
cation Rev iew and Res oluti
on Program. powerfuls
tori
eswr i
tt
enbyov eradozenleadingmember sof
Undert heauspicesoft hisprogr am,U. S.Citi
z enshi
pandI m- thebody.
mi grati
onServ i
ces( USCI S)gav et heFBIdi r
ectpowert oin
terveneanddel ayt hepr ocessingofi mmi grants’cit
izenship YOPandAWC
andv i
saapplications. l
eader spr octored
Youthwerealsomov edbyt hecaseoftheMidwest23,anin-
thecommuni t
y
vest
igati
onthatt ar
geted communitymemberswhom YOP surveyviagr ass-
member sknewper sonall
y— incl
udingAAANleaders— with rootscirculati
on
FBIraidsoftheirhomesands ubpoenastoafederalgr
and andonl i
ne,col -
j
ury.
³Thes e conversat
ionsprompted AAAN youthtotake l
ectingover450
act
ion;theseedsofCERPwer eplanted.
compl et
edques-
Thef i
rstst
epwast hedevelopmentofacommuni tysurvey
, ti
onnaires.The
producedbyYOP l eadersandAAAN or gani
zi
ngs taf
f,and result
sreveal eda
basedont heworkofoursis
terorganiz
ati
on,DesisRisi
ngUp communi tyrav-
andMov i
ng(DRUM)ofQueens ,NewYor k.Thesurveyasked agedbyr acial
respondentsawider angeofques t
ionsabouttheirexperi
-
enceswi t
hlocal
,st
ate,andfederall
aw enfor
cement.
profi
li
ng.
Atthi
spoint ,YOPmember sr eachedoutt ot
heAWC,another
AAAN init
iativet
hatfocusesonor ganizi
ngtrai
ni
ng,pol
it
ical Oneoutofevery10respondent
shadsomelevelofin-
educati
on,ands oci
al,per
s onal,andleaders
hipdevel
opment t
eract
ionwit
htheFBI
,andoneoutof12hadaninterac-
foras i
gni
ficantbaseofArabi mmi grantandref
ugeewomen t
ionwithsomeonewhot heybel
i
evedwasaninf
ormant.
i
nChi cagoland.
Theeff
ectsoft hi
shyper -
sur
veil
lancewer ealsomade
Co-foundedint hemi d-2000sbyf or
merAAAN cl
earbytherespondents.Oneoutoff i
ver eport
edbei ng
Associat
eDi r
ect orRasmeaOdehandani ni
ti
al afr
aidt
ospeakf reel
ybecauseoft hepr esenceofi nf
or-
baseofadozenorsoAr abwomen,t heAWC
S
NOI
mantsinthecommuni t
y,⁵whil
et hesamenumberr e-
LLI
l
eadsAAAN’ si mmi gr
antr ight
sorganizingand port
edthattheywer elessli
kel
yt ogeti nvolvedint he
NI
now has over700 member sfr
om count r
ies
MSI
communityortoparti
ci
pateinpolit
icalevents,ral
l
ies,or
ONOFARABSANDMUSLI
across the Arab wor l
d,i ncl
udi
ng Pal esti
ne, prot
est
sasar esult.
Syri
a,Jordan,Iraq,Yemen,Egypt ,Algeri
a,Mo-
rocco,andothers. Thesur
veyresultsandanalysi
smadei tcl
earthatAr
abs
andMusl imsinChicagolandwerebeing
tar
get edbyfederal
,stat
e,andlocall
aw
ZATI
enforcement,andthatthetar
geti
ngwas
NALI
havingadet r
imentaleff
ectonour
MI
SSENTANDTHECRI
communi ti
es.
ONOFDI
fort hefi
rstti
mei nnearl
ytwodecades,Ar ab
yout hledapr ot
estintheheartofdownt own
ATE:THESUPPRESSI
Chi cago.Ther all
yandmar chofhundr eds,
from Feder alPl
az atotheU. S.Immi gration
and Cust oms Enforcement( I
CE)bui l
ding,
calledforanendt ofeder
allaw enforcement
LLANCEST
attacksonourcommuni t
ies.
CI
SUSPI VI
OUSACTI TYREPORTSANDTHESURVEI
4
5
Angela Davis, Frank Chapman, and Rasmea Odeh
¹¹ See article on Why Countering extremism is bad by the Brennan Center for Justice:
www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/why-countering-violent-extremism-programs-are-bad-policy
¹² See DHS Grants Opportunity: www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=285773
¹³ See article on Chicago Arab and Black youth campaign against racial profiling by Bill Chambers, issued on August 20, 2016:
www.chicagomonitor.com/2016/08/chicago-arab-and-black-youth-campaign-against-racial-profiling-by-the-fbi/
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Arab American Action Network
www.aaan.org