The View From Olympus 30: Justice Department Undermines Law Enforcement

It is greatly to the advantage of states to treat Fourth Generation war as a law enforcement problem, to the degree they can do so. Why? Because 4GW is a contest for legitimacy, and lumping 4GW fighters in with other violent criminals delegitimizes them. It also puts the state on an altogether higher plane, whereas a state that must treat 4GW as combatants puts them and the state on the same level.Regrettably, the April 10 New York Times reports that draft rules for the FBI, issued by the Justice Department, will undermine our ability to act against 4GW elements with standard law enforcement techniques. The Times story says

The new rules, which are in draft form, expand the definition of prohibited profiling to include not just race, but religion, national origin, gender, and sexual orientation...Before federal agents could consider religion or other factors in their investigations under the new rules, they would need to justify it based on the urgency and totality of the threat and 'the nature of the harm to be averted,' according to an official who has seen the draft.That would not prevent agents from considering religion or nationality, but officials said the goal was to establish clear rules that made doing so rare.

In the real world, all law enforcement is and must be based on profiling. Cops profile on a wide variety of factors, anything that statistically is an indicator. They profile on race (the black rate of violent crime is twelve times the white rate, the Hispanic rate about three times), sex (almost all violent criminals are male), age (most are young), how someone is dressed, the make and condition of the car they drive, etc., etc., etc. Why must cops profile? Because there are so few cops as a percentage of the population, they must reduce potential “bad guys” to a number they have some hope of keeping an eye on. In a society where all profiling is banned, a condition toward which we are moving,, the ratio of cops to citizens needs to approach 1:1.The new rules from the Obama Justice Department only apply to federal law enforcement agencies, at least at first. Various “advocates” will no doubt attempt to make them apply to all law enforcement agencies. Cops will respond the only way they can, by ignoring the rules. To do otherwise would be to give up any hope of enforcement.Unfortunately, the FBI is our first line of defense against 4GW on American soil, and it will be crippled. All the forbidden indicators—race, religion, national origin, and gender (probably not sexual orientation)—are the fault lines along which Fourth Generation war is fought. Forbidding profiling on these bases is as if in World War II we had forbidden our soldiers to shoot just because someone was wearing a German or Japanese uniform. Obviously, that would have been insane. So is this.Advocates for pools from which 4GW fighters are drawn know the score and are playing the game accordingly. The Times reports Muslims are not satisfied and want the prohibitions made stronger:

Farhana Khera, the president of Muslim Advocates, said... 'We want an effective ban on all forms of profiling.'

Well, of course they do. All around the world, being Muslim is one of the most important indicators that someone may be a 4GW fighter. So by all means let's pass regulations that say a 75-year-old Baptist grandmother in Des Moines must be considered just as likely a suicide bomber as a young Muslim male immigrant from Somalia.Or Chechnya. When the identity of the Boston Marathon bombers was revealed, my first thought was, “Why are there any Chechens in this country?” Chechen is not just a nationality, it is a strong indicator that someone is trouble. Ask the Russians. They've known all about Chechens for more than a century. We should no more admit Chechens to the United States than we should welcome rabid dogs.It is an indicator of just how far Washington has drifted from the real world that the Justice Department would issue these new draft rules almost on the anniversary of the Boston bombings. While in public the feds mourn the victims, behind the scenes they put out the welcome mat for more 4GW on American soil. Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.