aghasee wrote:
> The cancer of political correctness...
>
> The British police are going to brief a panel of Muslim leaders before
> terror raids. The panel will offer their assessment of whether information
> police have on a suspect is too flimsy and will also consider the
> consequences on community relations of a raid. The panel members will have
> to promise not to reveal any intelligence they are shown but will not have
> to sign the Official Secrets Act.
>
> http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1380
It sounds bonkers, but there is a good reason behind it. Recent raids
(Forest Gate comes to mind) have been based on completely sound and
credible evidence, according to the police, but have turned out to be
total disasters - nothing found, and a whole community alienated.
There was a Muslim officer on the radio the other night, saying that if
they had asked any Muslim (including himself) they would have been
aware of the context of the intelligence and been able to assess it
better. Asking a panel of sensible and trustworthy people if the
evidence you have makes sense within the context of their community
would seem to be a good idea (although asking their own Muslim officers
apparently hasn't been tried yet). We would all have a worry that the
information would go directly back to the terrorists, but I imagine the
police would have thought of that. To dismiss the idea out of hand
implies that
a) no Muslim is ever to be trusted, and
b) the police haven't considered the most basic security aspects of the
idea.
I would say the idea has a lot to recommend it, provided the usual
precautions are taken.