Move along, nothing to see in welcoming Ft. Morgan, CO

I had to laugh when I saw this article (Morgan ahead of others in refugee resettlement) yesterday from Ft. Morgan, CO all about how great everything is with the booming Muslim population in that “welcoming” town.  If readers did not know that a refugee woman was murdered there a week ago today, one would think this just sounds idyllic.

In some ways, Fort Morgan is ahead of other cities that are dealing with an unexpected influx of refugees.

Recently, Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning Director of Integration Strategies Susan Downs-Karkos and English Language Training Project Director Burna Dunn came to Fort Morgan to talk with people from the school district, OneMorgan County and other agencies that are dealing with the challenges of the East African refugees who have moved to the community.

They also talked to people in Greeley and communities in Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas and Texas, on behalf of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, to find out how schools and other agencies are doing with their unplanned new residents.

All of these towns have meat or poultry packing plants, which offer relatively well-paying jobs for those with basic skills and little knowledge of English, Dunn said.

Overall, the representatives heard some promising things from Fort Morgan, Downs-Karkos said.

There are some ways in which Fort Morgan stands out compared to other communities. [other than being the only town with a murdered Somali]

Perhaps the biggest difference between Fort Morgan and the other cities is that it has Lutheran Family Services of Colorado case management services in the city, she said.

In most states, these kinds of services are only available in the big urban centers, and it is outstanding that LFS and the Colorado Refugee Services Program have been so responsive to the needs in Fort Morgan, Downs-Karkos said.

These Colorado offices have worked to put resources into communities to help both the refugees and the communities to deal with this move, she said.

As for the ’shout out’ to Lutheran Family Services of Colorado, I would like to know which came first.  Did the resettlement agency set up shop and bring the refugees to Ft. Morgan, or did they have insider knowledge that Cargill was going to be luring refugee labor and the agency followed the refugees?   Does anyone know?  We do know that Lutheran Family Services is a sponsor of the new Ethnic Community Based Organization in Greeley the East African Community of Colorado run coincidentally by some Somalis by the name of Abdi (both the murdered woman and the murder suspect share that name).

I would have so much more respect for mainstream media reporting if this article at least acknowledged that a refugee was murdered under very suspicious circumstances last week.  It wouldn’t have taken too many lines, but at least the problems should be listed along with the glossy good news.

Likewise since the same reporter wrote the story, he could have slipped in a line from his soccer team article AND  mentioned the fact that Somali teens were banned from the local library.   This is why so many people are getting their news elsewhere—-stories like this one are just too good to be true and readers know they are being spun!

More on Somali murder in Ft. Morgan: victim identified, sort of

The Ft. Morgan Times reported earlier today that the woman murdered by a fellow Somali immigrant last week is 27-year-old Warsen Aden Abdi.   When no pre-death records could be found, the only thing the Coroner’s office had to go on is the say-so of family members.  

 That is B.S.!   Unless she entered the country illegally (which is possible) someone in the US State Department, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, the Department of Homeland Security AND the agency that resettled her in the US have records for her.   If they don’t know who she is, that is downright scary because we are told refugees are thoroughly screened and surely fingerprinted in advance of arriving in the US.   Let’s hope they do a better job of tracking down documents on the accused murderer.

The victim of a Nov. 3 fatal stabbing has been positively identified by the Morgan County Coroner’s Office as Warsen Aden Abdi.

Her birth date, provided by family members, was Jan. 1, 1982.

Identification was complicated by lack of pre-death records.

The coroner’s office and Fort Morgan Police Department worked together to obtain postmortem fingerprints, a dental examination and medical examination but were unable to obtain any pre-death records for comparison.

Contact with Immigration Services and Lutheran Services, the sponsoring agency of refugees from East Africa, were unable to provide records.

Identification efforts were finalized by visual examination by family members of the victim.

A suspect in the case, Ahmed Abdi of Greeley, is being held in Morgan County jail on $300,000 bond and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Dec. 16.

Was this another honor killing?  Is that why there was an early gag order on information being released about the case?

Since the last names of the victim and the murder suspect are the same, I think it’s time to raise the Muslim ‘honor killing’ question.

Ft. Morgan Update: Gag order lifted in Somali murder case

Update:  Victim identified, same last name as murder suspect, here.

This is a post to update last week’s reports, here and here, from “welcoming” Ft. Morgan, CO, about the murder of a young refugee woman by a Somali man.  Although earlier stories dance around the word ‘Somali,’ referring to the alleged murderer and victim as being from East Africa, it sure appears from their names and from her photo that they are both Somali refugees presumably resettled here by the US State Department.   Some resettlement agency knows the two well and might know if they had a history together.  Prosecutors and reporters should contact the US State Department and find out the details of when the two entered the US and who resettled them. 

This is one time I wish we published photos.  Go to the Ft. Morgan Times story from Friday and see the suspected murderer’s photo—he is likely a lighter skinned Somali because of the Arab influence in the Horn of Africa.  I am told that such interbreeding is common.   Think about all the people in the world who wish to come to America and make better lives for themselves and we selected this guy.

Here is the story:

Bond was set Thursday at $300,000 for Ahmed Abdi of Greeley, accused in the stabbing death of a woman tentatively identified as Warsan Aden of Fort Morgan.

Abdi, 25, like the victim an East African, was in Morgan County District Court with an interpreter for rights advisement in the case.

District Attorney Robert Watson said he was not yet certain what charges would be filed, but preliminary reports indicated that the charges could be second-degree murder and first- and second-degree assault.

Judge Kevin Hoyer rescinded an order regarding pretrial publicity, putting normal standards for release of information about the case into effect.

Earlier, Judge Douglas Vannoy had imposed a set of standards somewhat more rigid than normal.

The judge says that rumors would start if the gag order was not rescinded—good thinking judge!

“It is a matter of interest to the community and a matter of interest to the media representing the community,” Watson said as he and Sperandeo both asked the court to rescind the order. Watson said he would rather have accurate information put out than to have rumors circulating.

Besides the $300,000 bond, Abdi must — if he raises bail — surrender any travel documents such as a passport or visa and must remain in Colorado.

Not a good idea, however, to even give him an opportunity to be out on bail.  He will disappear into Canada or Mexico the minute he is free (it is a possibility that that is how he got here in the first place).  Reporters for the Ft. Morgan Times need to find out whether or not he came to be in the US legally by, as I said above, contacting the US State Department.

This is what we are told so far about the murder itself.

The affidavit in support of the arrest warrant for Abdi said that two people called police to an apartment building at 400 W. Kiowa Ave. at 11:36 p.m. Tuesday.

Witness Abshir Hirsi, 29, said the victim went to the door of an apartment where she and several other people were watching television and began talking to a man, then they heard a loud noise as the victim yelled. She then grabbed Hirsi, and he felt blood.

For new readers:   Ft. Morgan has been, in my opinion, too naive and politically correct about the Somalis and other refugees pouring into that meat packing town, see my post here last year.   You can “welcome” them, but the community needs to be fully informed about the downside as well as the upside of being a resettlement city.  Cargill isn’t luring them to Ft. Morgan because they care about the downtrodden or wish to give Ft. Morgan the joys of multiculturalism—they are cheap legal labor, that is all.

See also this post about how Somali men would not allow Somali women to attend a mixed-gender church luncheon in Ft. Morgan.

Also you should know that the US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US in the last 25 years and then last year had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.

Gag order in Somali murder case in Ft. Morgan, CO

Update November 9th:  Gag order lifted, here.  Victim identified, same last name as murder suspect, here.

O.K. now things are really getting fishy.  Maybe Jerry Gordon writing at New English Review is on to something—do we have another* Muslim honor killing here?   I’ve written very critically of the Ft. Morgan Times and their editorial squishiness on the joys of multiculturalism, but notice here they are asking the judge to lift the gag order—good for them!

This is the latest on the stabbing death of a young “East African” woman (see post last evening) from the Ft. Morgan Times:

Two agencies involved in the investigation of a fatal stabbing in Fort Morgan have declined to release information on the case, citing a gag order.

After an initial news release reporting that an unidentified East African woman had been fatally stabbed Tuesday night and a suspect had been arrested in Greeley, Fort Morgan Police Chief Keith Kuretich
declined to further discuss the case Wednesday.

The stabbing occurred in a residence in the 400 block of West Kiowa Avenue, and another East African, Ahmed Abdi, 25, of Greeley was arrested on charges of second-degree murder and first- and second-degree assault, according to the initial FMPD news release.

The Morgan County Coroner’s Office declined to release the identity of the victim Wednesday afternoon.

Morgan County District Court Judge Douglas R. Vannoy issued a gag order Wednesday limiting what lawyers, legal representatives and law enforcement officials could say about the case.

The order granted a motion by public defender J. Brandeis Sperandeo to limit pretrial publicity.

The order prohibited lawyers and legal representatives from expressing opinions about character, guilt or innocence of the defendant; talking about admissions, confessions or contents of statements attributed to the defendant; making references to results of investigative procedures; and making statements about the credibility or anticipated testimony of prospective witnesses.

Law enforcement officers were prohibited under the order from discussing the existence or contents of any confession, admission or statement attributed to the defendant; discussing the possibility of the defendant entering a plea; discussing prior criminal records; discussing the performance of any examinations or tests; discussing the identity, testimony or credibility of prospective witnesses; and discussing information that an officer knows or has reason to know would be inadmissible in court.

The Times delivered a letter to the court Thursday morning requesting that the order be lifted.

I’m wondering if the murder suspect, Ahmed Abdi, is related to the Abdis who run the East African Community of Colorado Center in Greeley?

A little later:   I just remembered this post I wrote almost exactly a year ago about the church folks of Ft. Morgan getting together with their new Somali neighbors—the Somali men that is!  No Somali women could come out to the mixed-gender luncheon.

For new readers:

The US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US in the last 25 years and then last year had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.

* Iraqi woman died two days ago of her injuries in Arizona honor killing, here.

Amherst, MA: Yes we will be happy to “resettle” Gitmo detainees…

…that is, assuming Congress lifts the ban on resettling (as refugees) Guantanamo Bay Muslims who were detained as enemy combatants.

Reported on MassLive.com:

AMHERST – After about 40 minutes of discussion, Town Meeting on Wednesday night approved a resolution supporting the resettlement of Guantanamo Bay detainees to the area if Congress repeals its ban allowing resettlement of detainees in this country.

Part of the resolution also urged Congress to repeal that ban.

The article, brought to Town Meeting by a petition campaign led by meeting member Ruth F. Hooke, received all kinds of national attention and nasty e-mails and calls to the Select Board, resulting in a police officer being posted at a recent Select Board meeting.

For more on this story, see my previous post here.

Fort Morgan, CO: African refugee woman stabbed to death by Somali man

Update November 9th:  Gag order lifted, victim named, here.  Later, victim identified—same last name as murder suspect, here.

Update November 5th:  The plot thickens, judge issues gag order in the case, here.

Update:   You can find a few more details in the Greeley Tribune, here. Hat tip: Jerry Gordon

Fort Morgan, CO is a city that has been welcoming Somali and other African refugees ever since the meatpacking riots erupted in Greeley, CO more than a year ago.   Today comes news that a twenty-year-old  recently arrived refugee has been murdered by a Somali man outside her apartment.  Here is the whole short story in the Denver Post.  I will see if I can find more.

A man was arrested in Greeley early this morning just hours after a recent arrival to Fort Morgan was stabbed to death in front of her apartment house.

The woman, in her early 20s, is one of approximately 600 African refugees including Kenyans, Somalis and Nigerians living in the northeastern Colorado community, said Fort Morgan Police Chief Keith Kuretich.

It is the first homicide in Fort Morgan since Oct. 28, 2006.

Kuretich said police responded to the apartment complex in the 400 block of West Kiowa Avenue after receiving a 911 call reporting the stabbing.

The call was made by other tenants in the building.

Officers were quickly able to determine that a man had been seen with the victim in recent days and was the likely suspect, according to the chief.

After obtaining the man’s name and learning he was in Greeley, Fort Morgan Police contacted the Greeley Police Department, said the chief.

In the meantime, relatives of the victim had contacted the suspect and told him police were looking or him. At that point, the suspect, identified as Ahmed Abdi, 25, called the Greeley police and said he would turn himself in.

Abdi was arrested in Greeley and returned to Fort Morgan where he is being held for investigation of second-degree murder and first and second-degree assault.

Kuretich said authorities are trying to determine the exact relationship between the victim and Abdi. The victim’s name has not been released.

I’ve written many many posts on Ft. Morgan, but I commend this post to you now. It’s a post about a Ft. Morgan Times editorial a year ago that took a shot at RRW and I called the editorial naive and deceptive.   Use our search function for all the other posts on “welcoming” Ft. Morgan.

Endnote:  I know Abdi is a common Somali name, but I wonder if the suspect is related to Asad Abdi one of the Somali “community organizers” in Greeley, here.

Refugee would-be kidnappers sentenced in Roanoke, VA

We first reported this story in May, here.  Yesterday a judge in Roanoke, Virginia sentenced four former refugees to short prison sentences and deportation when they are released from prison in the attempted kidnapping case that shocked rural Virginia.

From the Roanoke Times:

The plot was bizarre, carefully planned and amateurishly executed: To make money in America, three young men from refugee families set out to find a wealthy woman, abduct her from her home and hold her for ransom.

It all unraveled as soon as Audrey Levicki answered the door to her Southwest Roanoke County home.

Suspicious that the two men were not the Red Cross volunteers they claimed to be, Levicki braced the door with her foot and then slammed it shut on the arm of the one who tried to reach inside.

The two men ran off, despite months of planning and a getaway car waiting at the end of the driveway with rope, handcuffs and other tools of a kidnapping. The duo was quickly arrested along with two accomplices, setting in motion a series of unintended consequences that culminated Monday at a sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

Levicki, whose intended fate was to be held in a rundown camper until her captors could collect up to $1 million from her corporate executive husband, said that she is now a prisoner in her own home.

“My life went to hell on April 6,” Levicki said in a statement to Judge James Turk, recounting how the incident led to fearful days, sleepless nights and a loss of security so profound that she no longer ventures outside to feed the dog unless armed with a baseball bat.

For the three African natives who tried to kidnap Levicki — Luke Musa Elbino, 20; Mohammed Hussein Guhad, 20; and Joshua Kasongo, 19 — the consequences went beyond the five-and-a-half-year prison terms they received at the end of a daylong hearing.

Once they are released from prison, the three face almost certain deportation back to Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda — countries their families fled when they were boys to escape civil war and genocide.

This part is a joke, we won’t deport them.  We never send refugees back to places like Somalia and possibly not even the Sudan or Rwanda.  In five and a half years they will be back in Roanoke with additional ’skills’ they learn in prison!  Maybe they will be reformed, maybe not.

Then here is the ultimate in liberal do-gooder hubris:

“They went through terror themselves, so I couldn’t imagine them inflicting that on anyone else,” Barbara Smith, the retired head of the nonprofit Refugee and Immigration Services* office in Roanoke, said while testifying for the defendants.

People like Smith assume that when the US shows kindness, the kindness will be returned.  She can’t believe that young men plucked from the hell hole of Africa could bite the hand that feeds them.  

Read the entire article in the Roanoke Times, there is lots more to the story.  Note that even the reporter in using words and phrases like, “bizarre,” “surreal,” “full of ironies,” appears to be demonstrating his disappointment that these young men didn’t follow the magical pattern of what refugees are supposed to be—grateful and ultimately successful.

In fact, in that May post on this story, the Judge at that time, Judge Michael Urbanski, said he was sad about the case.  Here is what I said about his sadness:

For whom are you sad Judge? It doesn’t sound like you have the frightened women who were stalked by these men at the top of your “sad” list. Are you sad that these men ‘flipped the bird’ at the gift given them by the ‘humanitarians’ at the State Department and the volag federal contractors who brought them to America? Or, are you sad for yourself because the myth of the beautiful American melting pot has been tarnished?

* Looks like this resettlement agency is a Catholic Charities (US Conference of Catholic Bishops) subcontractor.

Endnote:   This isn’t the first time we have heard about problems in “welcoming” Roanoke.  Back in April 2008 we reported on the on-going conflicts between African Americans and the new African refugees resettled by this agency, here, in Roanoke.  These agencies have this naive notion that African Americans will welcome with open arms their black brothers from Africa into their communities.  It’s not about skin color, it’s about culture and the cultures are often in conflict.  It doesn’t help either that refugees get all sorts of government stuff.

Bowling Green must be overloaded with refugees, new satellite office to open in Owensboro

Update:  Check out how much federal cash Catholic Charities is getting in Kentucky to resettle refugees, here.

We’ve written a lot about Bowling Green, KY and problems there, most recently just last week, I posted a lengthy article on the Bowling Green International Center (aka Western Kentucky Mutual Assistance Association, there is something fishy about these name changes, but that’s another story) which I encourage you to read before proceeding below.

So according to BG Daily News, they are spreading out, opening a satellite office 72 miles up the road in Owensboro.   I wonder did anyone bother to discuss the move with the local government and citizens of Owensboro?   It reminds me of what happened where we live.  The Virginia Council of Churches ran into some problems in Lancaster, PA and figured they would just move their next bunch of refugees down the road apiece to Hagerstown, MD.

The Bowling Green International Center has received approval from the federal government to expand its refugee services – including a ramped-up effort to combat human trafficking – into Owensboro with a satellite office that is expected to open there around the beginning of 2010.

The U.S. State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration gave final approval for the office this week, and the center expects to resettle some 75 refugees in Owensboro within the next 12 months, said International Center Director James Robinson.  [What the heck?  How does the US State Department have the authority to saddle a town with unfunded mandates---did anyone ask the town?]

“This will not jeopardize the Bowling Green office in any way,” he said. “We will maintain, and hopefully expand, the office here in Bowling Green.”

The Owensboro office will give the International Center greater opportunities to serve the refugees it resettles but ramp up its other services as well, according to Robinson.

The center participates with the federal government for cultural cross-training and assimilation programs as well as various statewide and local charities in providing other services, such as English classes and translation resources, employment sourcing, clothing, housing and food. Only refugees who have legal status in the U.S. can benefit from the services.

“We were at a point where we needed to make some major upgrade changes in our services to the public,” he said. “This will allow us that opportunity to build on the progress we have made in the past three years. We are a helping organization. So any vehicle or tool that comes our way to expand these services is a very welcoming opportunity.”

The Bowling Green International Center is also getting a  federal grant to combat “human trafficking” which one of my correspondents calls a major scam.  I’m told they get grants to “educate” but actually don’t help anyone who is trafficked. 

So, as we have been pointing out ever since the Obama Administration announced there would be no reduction in refugees arriving in the US even though our jobless rate is so high, the reporter here at the BG Daily News confirms that point.  By the way, Kentucky’s jobless rate dropped in September to 10.9%, but that still makes it higher than the national average.

The expansion in services comes on the heels of an announcement this month from President Barack Obama that a minimum [maximum!] of 80,000 refugees will enter the country over the next 12 months. That number is roughly 20,000 more people than two years ago and close to 50,000 more refugees than three to five years ago under the Bush administration, Robinson said. [Robinson thinks he is slamming Bush as being unwelcoming, but the real reason is that after 9/11 the numbers were dramatically reduced so that Homeland Security could figure out how to better screen refugees for terrorists that might sneak in among them!]

With the increasing number of refugees entering the U.S., the Department of State and the Office of Refugee Resettlement are looking to resettle refugees in locations where they have the greatest opportunities for success. [That is code for they need fresh territory, they have exhausted the goodwill of their original community].  Availability of low-cost housing, language diversity, employment and income potential, and public transportation are considered, according to the ORR.

I love the way this is always phrased— “with the increasing number of refugees entering”—as if the flow is out of anyone’s control.  There are millions of refugees who want to get to the US, and we choose how many we can take.  It is like a spigot that could be turned off in economic down times.

My question is, is there a meatpacking plant nearby that needs cheap labor? 

For more on Bowling Green, use our search function.

Chicago again! Angry Africans demand more money for refugees

There is no doubt in my mind that these recent articles in the Chicago Tribune are orchestrated and meant to create a crisis in order to push Congress to “reform” the Refugee Resettlement program by allocating it more money.  Afterall, this is Chicago and Ed Silverman has been around long enough to know the basics of Alinsky-style “community organizing.”   Read all about Silverman and Iraqi refugees, here.

Five days ago I told you about the unhappy Iraqis in Chicago and now it’s the Africans.

From the Chicago Tribune today:

The crowd was angry inside the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago — a stark contrast to the cheery African murals that have greeted one refugee community after another since the Uptown nonprofit organization formed 25 years ago.

The reason: more evidence that the federal system set up to welcome roughly 2,500 refugees to Illinois per year is nearly broken.

On the heels of two critical national studies highlighting worries over homelessness and other problems faced by Iraqi refugees, a new report released in Chicago [what report, where is it?] shows the frustrations of Africans arriving from such war-torn areas as Burundi, Sudan and Somalia.

Among the findings is that the system created in 1980 no longer meets the needs of an increasingly diverse refugee population of former human trafficking victims, child soldiers and victims of torture.

“I arrived here full of hope to start a new life,” fumed Idriss Shariff, a refugee from Darfur, Sudan, who said he nevertheless was frustrated about a lack of job training and decent housing.

White House officials have acknowledged the need to reform the system, which provides a one-time grant of $425 per adult refugee and leaves much of the burden for housing, job searches and other needs to overwhelmed local aid groups.

Roughly 4,800 African refugees have arrived in the Chicago area since 1999, most of them settling on the North Side as they contribute to African communities’ rapid growth in the last decade to nearly 30,000 people.

And, what do you know!  It’s Mr. Ed again saying that boo hoo we have no money for all these refugees!

Ed Silverman, who has directed state refugee services since the late 1970s, said stability has become increasingly elusive for new refugees.

“We are facing the worst crisis in the refugee program that I have ever experienced,” he told the crowd at the Ethiopian center.

Many clapped in agreement.

NO ONE EVER SUGGESTS THAT MAYBE THE NUMBER OF REFUGEES GOING TO CHICAGO IS NOT SUSTAINABLE, AND NO ONE EVER SAYS LET’S SLOW THE FLOW OF REFUGEES TO THE US WHILE WE ARE IN A RECESSION!   INDEED THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS PROPOSED THE CEILING FOR FY2010 REMAIN AS HIGH AS THE PREVIOUS YEAR!

So, let’s have a look at the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago.   Note that on their home page they are purchasing a building, so that tells us right there that they have some money.   Check out their Form990 for the FY ending June 2008, here.

I am not an accountant, so I’m not sure why these numbers don’t exactly match up, but here they are.   They reported that they received $311,317 from government grants (taxpayers) and $611,101 from fees and government contracts (taxpayers) and that is the sum of their income for the year.*

However, scrolling down to near the end of the Form 990 there is this list of government grants and the total amount of money is higher.  Keep in mind some of this might be expended in another fiscal year, but I thought it interesting to note the agencies from which funds are received.

There is an Office of Refugee Resettlement grant of $424,453 that is a pass through grant from its parent organization, Ethiopian Community Development Council, one of the Top Ten volags (ECDC does not have a Better Business Bureau Report on file).

$66,297 from the US Dept. of Labor, $20,970 from HUD, and $25,270 from the US Dept. of Education.

That brings the total for June 2008 to $536,990 and that is up from $256,148 the previous June.  So, they have doubled their income from the feds (you) in one year.  They do have more money.

By the way, that $424,453 is for “reception and placement” which means that if they don’t bring in the refugees they don’t get that money.

That Los Angeles grant scam, any connection?

Now, one more thing.  Back to the website for the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago, note that they had a visit from Dr. Tsehaye Teferra of ECDC.   We wrote 2 years ago about a scam involving an African resettlement agency in Los Angeles, another subcontractor of ECDC, here, where the director, Nikki Tesfai (a friend of Oprah!), was indicted in a huge grant scam.   I recall reading that she is somehow related to Dr Teferra, but  I could be wrong and I couldn’t find the reference just now.  I don’t know what happened to Nikki Tesfai, whether she was ever found guilty.

* A little while later:   It just occurred to me that there might be readers new to the refugee program who don’t know that this whole thing was set up as a public-private partnership.  That means that the private part, the non-profit group, is supposed to put up some of the funding.  It was not meant to be strictly a pass through of  your tax dollars to unaccountable NGOs,  now largely run by the immigrants they originally helped.   This is how the left has effectively expanded the reach of the federal government (and redistributes your wealth!)—it happens in all leftwing causes from immigration to environment, and if Obama has his way, before you know it, it will be expanded to newspapers as well!

Portland, ME: Isn’t diversity a beautiful thing!

You know your city has become fully multicultural and diversified when the Department of Justice has to send in its team of mediators to settle ethnic disputes and address discrimination complaints.  It is certainly one of the joys of having established your city as one that ”welcomes the stranger.”

We’ve been telling you about problems (murders, riots, etc.) in Portland, ME for some time (just use our search function and you’ll see what I mean).   This week we learned, thanks to reader Susan, that the Justice Department’s community relations division has set up shop in Portland.

From the Portland Press Herald:

The Department of Justice is again working with the Portland Police Department, but this time it’s the community relations division trying to help improve ties between police and the Sudanese community.

A mediator with the federal agency has made contact with members of the Sudanese Community Association and with police officials. The goal is to create an environment where both sides are able to discuss the conflict with the goal of resolving tensions.

“Our basic work is to come into a community to bring conciliation and restoration of peace, where there have been issues based on race, color or national origin,” said George Henderson, legal counsel for the agency’s Community Relations Service.

He said department rules prevent him from confirming the department’s presence in Portland or any specifics about who contacted the department and what issues it has identified.

However, representatives from the Sudanese community and police confirmed the agency’s involvement.

The last time the Department of Justice sent someone to work with the Portland Police Department it was far less amicable.

In 2002, the agency’s civil rights division was assigned to Portland to investigate whether the police force had a pattern or practice of violating civil rights. The agency was asked to investigate in hopes of restoring trust in the police following a series of high-profile excessive force cases.

The exhaustive investigation spanned two years and concluded that there was no institutional pattern or practice of civil rights violations. It did, however, propose a number of improvements and “best practices” that the department adopted.

The community relations division of the Department of Justice — formed in 1964 as part of the Civil Rights Act — has no investigative or prosecutorial powers. It is called upon to heal rifts within communities, but works behind the scenes to recommend practices and bring community leaders together, Henderson said.

There is more.  Read on.

Here is what the Justice Department’s community relations division does, and it seems that anyone can call them in.

The Community Relations Service is the Department’s “peacemaker” for community conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color, and national origin. Created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, CRS is the only Federal agency dedicated to assist State and local units of government, private and public organizations, and community groups with preventing and resolving racial and ethnic tensions, incidents, and civil disorders, and in restoring racial stability and harmony. CRS facilitates the development of viable, mutual understandings and agreements as alternatives to coercion, violence, or litigation. It also assists communities in developing local mechanisms, conducting training, and other proactive measures to prevent or reduce racial/ethnic tension. CRS does not take sides among disputing parties and, in promoting the principles and ideals of non-discrimination, applies skills that allow parties to come to their own agreement. In performing this mission, CRS deploys highly skilled professional conciliators, who are able to assist people of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds.

I could give them a few suggestions of cities that need their services.

Endnote:    I was just trying to figure out if there was one Sudanese community group in Portland and came across this handy Maine government site for Multicultural Affairs.   Some of our Maine readers should look into each of these groups and see who funds them, etc.  Also, if they are 501(c)3s, you might want to see how much involvement they have in electoral politics or lobbying for legislation—they shouldn’t have much of a role if they are legit non-profits.

Also, you know your city is experiencing the strengthening power of diversity when you have an organization called the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence established in your city.  Note that this Portland group reaped a federal grant ($184,719) from the Ethnic Community Based Organizations funding initiative of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, here.