NYPD and LAPD Divided by The Nation of Islam

By Bob Michael
LAPD Police Detective Capt. (Ret)

(Below is a copy of a letter I sent for publication in our LAPD police officer association’s monthly paper, The Thin Blue Line. I have had prior papers published. This was denied by dodging, not answering emails or telephones, and finally the female editor / police officer said she would have to check with the association attorney; this was in November 2011. This letter was never published and I have never heard from anyone at the association.)

I am a retired Los Angeles Police Department captain. During my career, and subsequently, I was proud of the Department’s long held positions of neutrality in politics and religion, and tough on crime and criminals, notwithstanding the onslaught of the ACLU and the media to reverse those positions. I have moved on to other areas of interest such as the Bolsheviks in America and the march of Islam right behind it.

I was shocked a couple of months ago to see and hear an LAPD Deputy Chief of Police (who had served as the LAPD Interim Chief of Police in 2009) speaking as an apologist and LAPD representative for The Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim Students Association. To make matters worse, this Deputy Chief – Michael Downing – is the Commanding Officer of LAPD’s Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau. The Bureau has a 300 officer intelligence division, which includes the Anti-Terrorist Intelligence Section.

LAPD’s Michael Downing

Downing’s biographical information I set out here comes from the Los Angeles Police Department website. It shows his deep involvement with Islam, and it makes his pro-Islam positions even more worrisome.

Downing has testified before Congressional subcommittees relative to intelligence, homeland security, and information sharing. In April 2010, Downing served as a member of the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council working group on developing a national strategy for countering violent extremism.

As of May 2010, Chief Downing was elected the President of the Leadership in Counter-Terrorism (LinCT) Alumni Association. This association is working with alumni from the FBI’s LinCT Program to develop a global enterprise of networked counter-terrorism practitioners from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Downing has also worked with the Department of Justice to transition large national police organizations into democratic civilian policing models. One of those countries was Turkey.

At the time of this writing he held the position of a senior fellow at the George Washington University Homeland Security Institute and is a member of the Executive Board of the Los Angeles Joint Regional Intelligence Center.

He works closely with the Islamic Center of Southern California and testifies before Congress regarding terrorism, while consulting with Homeland Security as a George Washington fellow.

Deputy Chief Downing had a problem in 2005 concerning his involvement with a Church of Scientology related group. The group had printed booklets for school children which included writings of L. Ron Hubbard, the Scientology founder. Hollywood Area Commanding Officer (Captain at the time) Downing reportedly had LAPD officers of his command dispensing the literature in the Hollywood Area command to youth.

When the distribution and alleged letter of commendation from the LA Chief of Police signed by Downing became public (posted on a web site), Downing reportedly stated,

“We cannot endorse the Church of Scientology or any religion as the LAPD…”

Downing is quoted in a newspaper as saying the commendation and posting was fraudulent.

A high level Scientology spokesperson stated,

“Michael Downing has appeared at events for us and spoken very highly of the work we do. As far as I know, the letter was generated and sent by him and I have the original hanging on my wall here. It looks like a real signature to me. I am not aware of any public agency inquiry into the matter (which should certainly have been expected).”

I referred to the issue of Scientology, and Downing’s involvement, as a known forerunner of his activities involving LAPD and Islam. Downing stated in 2005 that LAPD could not endorse ANY religion. Few would doubt that Islam is a religion. Downing does not doubt that because he says in a video that “We” are announcing a grant to train Imams. Is “We” LAPD, or is Downing speaking for a religion, Islam?

Scientology deserves no comparison here, except for the presence of Downing.

Downing is the Muslim face of LAPD. He appears regularly with various terrorist-related Muslims and at Muslim functions such as the Islamic Center of Southern California and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Downing can be seen in smiling and friendly handshake photos with MPAC Executive Director Salam Al-Marayati, a supporter of Hezbollah and Hamas, and with Dr. Mustafa Al-Barghouti known as an anti-Israeli zealot.

The MPAC Executive Director has also categorized the Hezbollah terrorist attack which killed 241 US Marines, as ‘a military operation.’ Al-Marayati has made hundreds of statements which defend terrorists and their acts, and regularly utters anti-American positions.

Al-Marayati brought Al-Barghouti for a fundraising event, purportedly intended to aid Palestinian supposed medical needs. Barghouti is a leader of the Palestinian People’s Party (PPP), a Communist movement that collaborated in 2006 with the DFLP (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine), a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization that has carried out a number of shooting attacks against Israeli targets, including a 2001 attack on a military base in Gaza that killed three Israeli soldiers and wounded seven others.

I am sorry to say that the Los Angeles Police Department has chosen a path which can only lead to (1) a diminution of its image as a quality law enforcement agency, (2) its support for Muslims who have killed LAPD officers defending this country overseas, and (3) itself becoming a part of a serious threat to the very existence of our great country. In the past, during my time with the Department from the 1960s to the 1980s, we were able to identify the good from the bad. We worked hard to be apolitical and to avoid the agency being entangled in religious battles. We avoided even the appearance of evil. How far we have come, and how blind we have become, to have abandoned those wise positions we worked so hard to accomplish, and maintain.

I have spent a good deal of time academically and empirically over the last several years, studying the two great threats to America. The first threat is Bolshevism, on which I have published a book which sells on Amazon. I won’t name it because I don’t want this to be a commercial message. The second area of even a greater threat, ultimately, is Islamization of America. It is this issue which brings me here, including the Department going so far out-of-bounds in an effort to support the fronts for Islam.

I do not intend this to be a legal brief. It matters little which side you are on, and the evidence to offer in opposition from either side. My point is that for the Department to have a K-9 in the fight at all, makes a serious and far-reaching dangerous mistake. The point is that there is a debate of a serious nature; not so much about Islam, but the fronts for Islam in America.

I did not raise this issue first. Deputy Chief Michael Downing, in a presentation at the Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC) on May 15, 2011, spoke as, what I would call, a clear apologist for the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and the Muslim Students Association (MSA) (See the May 15, 2011 YouTube video). The video is invaluable in recognizing the inroads of Islam into LA County law enforcement. Recognition is given to Tom Trento of United West.org.

Many, many very prominent and knowledgeable people with impeccable credentials and actual experience with these organizations have a very different view of them than Downing’s apologetics.

Let me set out right here a very short statement on the MB. It was founded in Egypt by Hasan Al-Banna in 1928. The Brotherhood’s original mission was to Islamize society through promotion of Islamic law, values, and morals. An Islamic revivalist movement from its early days, it has combined religion, political activism, and social welfare in its work. It adopted the slogan, “Islam is the solution and jihad is our way.”

Establishing an Islamic state based on sharia is today at the center of the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology, both in Egypt and among the group’s many offshoots abroad. Downing says the MSA is an offshoot.

I viewed Downing’s very impressive bio with a reservation that bios are bios, and accrual of real expertise can be very different. Most LAPD officers know that what makes a command staff officer is more often than not very different from what makes a good line officer, or intelligence officer, or supervisor. What Downing said at the ICSC can only be for one of two reasons, and neither will be offered here, as neither is admirable.

One standout in Downing’s bio is a stint of eight weeks working (?) with the New Scotland Yard’s Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Command SO 15. Certainly Great Britain has little virtue in dealing with the British Muslim Brotherhood. And the published Islamic Muslim Manifesto by British Muslims is certainly not pro-British. Great Britain now has granted Islamic sharia law authority within its borders. At the same time it has chosen to move to forbid Christians from wearing a cross while at work.

Islam is, according to its founding documents, against virtually every aspect of the U.S. Constitution, and everything that every American patriot holds dear. Islam is most certainly anti-American, and for LAPD to support it is beyond understanding; and beyond political correctness.

Let me make it clear that you can go to many organizations such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the MB, the MSA, as well as the local Imam, academics, educators, a pastor, or even a Rabbi, and find them speaking highly of Islam. MB is widely considered the world’s most influential Islamist organization, with numerous branches and affiliates. It is called “the mother of all Islamist movements”. That is one side.

The other side, which sees Islam as a force which is bent on world conquest, will be represented by former Islamic terrorists, former members of Hamas, federal prosecutors, NYPD intelligence personnel, former knowledgeable FBI agents, Islamic historians, Mohammed, the Qur’an, the Haddith, and many other Islamic sources themselves.

There are many specific persons and actions that could be listed, but for some brevity let me list the larger picture for MB.

Muslim Brotherhood is a global, not a local organization, governed by a Shurah (Consultative) Council, which rejects cessation of violence in Israel, and supports violence to achieve its political objectives elsewhere, too. Islam is global and all Muslims are members of the Ummah; or Ummah Islamiyyah, the Islamic Community, which comprises all Muslims throughout the world. This concept is similar to Marxism, which is international, and not nationally based.

A veteran international reporter has described current Muslim Brotherhood propaganda as a “charm offensive”. It is truly a deadly chameleon.

A Prince, Interior Minister of Saudi Arabia, has stated that the Muslim Brotherhood organization was the cause of most problems in the Arab world.

One academic states MB can count on only 100,000 militants in Egypt; just Egypt and just 100,000 (?) The Bolsheviks came to power in Russia in 1917 with far fewer than 100,000. This is the other side, which I believe to be correct.

So what does Downing say about HIS local MB? He says they are different and have evolved. That this gigantic battle for the truth of Islam exists, ought to clearly keep LAPD out of the propaganda battle. That, unfortunately, is not the case. In fact, over 90 percent of intelligence personnel worldwide (who are not Muslim) without difficulty, see the MB as an enemy of peace and freedom. Let me give you a few examples of the Downing apologetic.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is an organization of politically active motivation. I’m sure it does (the MB) exist here in a different form (from evil MB?).”

I love this next statement of Downing):

“I think that, uh, one of the benefits of what we do in terms of dealing with the motivational aspects of terrorism is to do in (sic) to outreach and engage with the community so they don’t feel isolated, Balkanized, oppressed, or besieged.” (This is a standard line which he has used at other times also)

Wow! We deal with the ‘motivational aspects of terrorism’ by going to the community. This sounds like it’s right out of Harvard academia. I wonder if our LAPD officers in Afghanistan and Iraq have ever considered the ‘motivational aspects of terrorism’. That must mean things that motivate people to become terrorists. What might cause people in our community to become terrorists and blow up innocent people? Downing tells us, I guess, when he proposes that if we take away from people in Los Angeles the feeling of being isolated, Balkanized (this is what Islam itself is doing in Great Britain), oppressed, or besieged, then they won’t want to be terrorists. Maybe we erred in not dealing with the motivational aspects of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) when nearly all died in a shootout with our officers.

Symbionese Liberation Army: What if the LAPD had applied the Muslim standard to this bunch?

This next quote from Downing makes it clear:

“And our biggest counter-terrorism strategy in this community is the partnership that we have with the local communities.”

That means we are partnering with members of a group which has sworn to take this country into a theocratic dictatorship where those who refuse to submit to allah will be killed. This is not radical terrorism, but mainline Islam for those who follow Mohammed and the Qur’an. Downing’s work with (according to his bio) the New Scotland Yard’s Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Command SO 15, might have had an influence on him, or perhaps he influenced them. How long might it be before sharia law has authority in Los Angeles?

A while later Downing foretells the future when he says,

“People here, we are trying to show that the message of al-Qaeda (and many real authorities believe of the MB) is unattainable. There is no way we will ever have a worldwide Muslim dominated rule with sharia law and a caliphate.”

Downing obviously is speaking on behalf of Islam, but does the ‘we’ include LAPD? He misleads when he says there will be no Muslim world domination, sharia law, and a caliphate because that is exactly what Islam, including the CAIR, MB, and MSA are pursuing. Islam and Downing want America to believe (‘we are trying to show’) there will be no Islamic destruction of America, and all the while Islam is pursuing this exact goal.

Is this in the province of LAPD to determine that Islam will or will not, in the end, rule worldwide? I think absolutely not. I can only speculate on the motives of Downing, but he is absolutely engaging in ‘conduct unbecoming’ at the very least, and using very poor judgment. If he wants to embrace Islam and terrorists, it is his decision (for which he remains accountable) but to make it an LAPD position is inexcusable.

Downing misses the very sharp point that it doesn’t matter right now what might happen in the ultimate future, which he certainly cannot predict. It is today, and the immediate future, that LAPD must concern itself with. Does it really matter to our LAPD officers, who gave their lives overseas fighting Muslims, what the ultimate outcome of Islamization will be? No. It is the belief of Muslims that they can bring about their end victory, by killing, right now. The Muslims, who killed thousands on September 11, 2001 and those who are killing today, and will continue tomorrow, should be the concern of law enforcement in LA. Their success in the future should be for state and federal political concern.

Downing tries to use analogies. He talks about the original MB and that they evolved and changed just like ‘we’ have. He talks of good and bad, or differing views of the MB, as being like Republicans and Democrats. He also talks about the Muslim Students Association (MSA) as being an offshoot of the MB. He says he knows all about the MB.

So as to keep his assertions somewhat cohesive, which is difficult, it is instructive to look at the MSA which he calls an offshoot of the evolved, changed and good MB he deals with.

The MSA has a position on college campuses across the U.S. Here are a few of its leaders who moved on to bigger and better things Islamic. Remember these are people who lead organizations Downing finds to be worthy of LAPD support, and defense.

Anwar al-Awlaki – He was president of the MSA at Colorado State University. He became an al-Qaeda cleric linked to the Times Square bomb planting, the Fort Hood on-post al-Qaeda murders, and other violent Muslim plots (al-Awlaki has been executed by the U.S. government in Yemen since I wrote this and submitted it to our LAPD union for publication…which was rejected).

Ramy Zam Zam – He was the president of the MSA Washington, D.C. Counsel and was convicted in Pakistan of being engaged in joining the Taliban in Afghanistan to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan (LAPD has officers serving in our forces in Afghanistan, with three killed there by the Taliban).

Omar Hamami – He was the MSA president on the University of South Alabama campus and then eventually made his way to Somalia where he became a leader in the Al Shabab Muslim murder group.

LAPD should be miles away from anything to do with the Muslim Brotherhood or the Muslim Students Association (except surveillance of them). The evidence against them is overwhelming. For Downing to place LAPD in a position of even a hint of support for these Muslim groups is at best a serious breach of professionalism, or he really believes the unbelievable. Whichever it is, he needs to be exposed.

Downing in his ICSC interview of May 15, 2011, was extremely proud of his support for things Islam when he stated,

“Tomorrow we are going to announce a $50 million grant to Claremont, the first American University, it’s going to train imams and what it is to live in a contemporary environment under democracy, because what they (Muslims) are doing, they are bringing these foreign imams in, it’s not doing it because (several interruptions) they don’t have the context of what it is like here; they don’t have the context of what it is to have Islam and democracy to co-exist.”

I don’t know if Downing is part of the ‘we’ of the ICSC, which along with Jewish Academy Seminary, also made the announcement. One thing for sure, Islam is not seeking co-existence with democracies.

At any rate, according to the donor of the $50 million, who is also affiliated with Claremont, the program includes protestant clergy, and Jews, as well as Imams. Downing was either playing to the ICSC and cameras, or getting taken by his own rhetoric, as he did at a ‘Postopolis! LA’ meeting in 2009. He builds well on his suppositions, but in the world of terrorists and terrorism, they are just often wrong, and that makes all LAPD wrong.

Much of Downing’s talk is social engineering of the worst kind, and LAPD has seriously been degraded by Downing’s activities. The Chief of Police needs to take a good look at where this has taken the Department.

In March of 2011, two months before the irresponsible remarks of Downing at the ICSC, the FBI Director testified before the U.S. Congress that the FBI had severed all ties with CAIR and its dozens of offices nation-wide. Why? Because of CAIR ties with Hamas and terrorism. Those are the very same ties of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Muslim Students Association Downing clearly appears to support.

Chief Beck needs to quickly address this very dangerous position taken by Deputy Chief Downing. He needs to launch an inquiry into the make-up and positions taken by the intelligence personnel (300 suggested by Downing in 2009) working for Downing, and Downing’s own relationships, and their extent, with Muslim Brotherhood.

I believe we are still at war with Muslim terrorists, including Muslim Brotherhood at the helm.
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Most recently, after this letter was submitted to the LAPD officers’ union and rejected, the FBI caved in, allowing Muslim organizations to review FBI materials and to censor out that which the Muslim fundamentalists deem offensive.

Of greater significance are the Islamic organizations and their fellow travelers’ attacks on the NYPD personnel for surveillance of Muslims in New Jersey (where the mosque of the first Twin Towers bombers is located). The historical significance is great in foundation.

I have written much on ‘racial profiling’ protection and the legal sham that is. Racial profiling protection is the force field surrounding anyone who wishes to stop law enforcement from “Constitutionally” protecting America. Racial profiling is not a Constitutional guarantee but trumps the United States Constitution. Interestingly, the State of New Jersey lost its sovereignty in one of the first major racial profiling actions brought by the government of these United States against the New Jersey State Police.

But that is a bad guy victory from time past, and continuing sham for future bad guy application.

Bob Michael, retired
LAPD

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From the Muslim Public Affairs Council website, Downing is quoted as saying:

“There is also a recognition that there are two sides of extremism, the side from Al Qaeda and the affiliates bent on attacking the West, and the other side of those who continue to demonize Muslims and Islam in an effort to keep people afraid and angry. Both are not helpful to protecting our nation from terrorist attacks.”

“Police have the ability to form partnerships and integrate communities into the common, unified approach to problem solving. The Muslim Public Affairs Council and Salam Al-Marayati, in particular, have been an authentic partner in this most important endeavor. We can always look back at the past and point out the negative; however, it is the future that we should have our eye toward and all Americans play an important role in defining this future. For those who criticized his participation at the recent radicalization conference, I would ask you to get the feedback from the 60 or so law enforcement officers from around the state as to the content, the engagement, and the authenticity of that dialogue. This was helpful. This was a partnership. And this is the strength or our Democracy.”

At the Unity 2011 Interfaith Conference sponsored (apparently) by Muslims, Downing called Islam the truth; and he called those who collaborated on the book Sharia: The Threat To America, liars and writers of “a book full of lies”. He speaks of the truth of Islam.

Downing Founded the Chiefs of Police Muslim Forum.