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Miami Commissioner Hardemon [and U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer]: Prosecute gangsters as terrorists
The Miama Herald
By David Smiley AND Charles Rabin
01/16/2015 8:06 PM
Excerpt:
For years, the federal government has used the Patriot Act as a tool to pursue and charge dangerous terrorists. But what if agents used the power afforded by the controversial anti-terror legislation in another way — to target local criminals who terrorize their own communities one bullet at a time?
That’s apparently an option on the table in Miami, where a wave of gun violence that engulfed inner city communities in 2014 has now spilled over into the new year. This week, Miami Commissioner Keon Hardemon and U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer discussed declaring local gangbangers “domestic terrorists” and investigating and prosecuting them as such, according to the commissioner.
“This is in the realm of what I call creative prosecuting,” said Hardemon, a former public defender who believes the Patriot Act would enable law enforcement to better investigate violent criminals and heap harsher penalties on perpetrators. Ferrer “admitted to me that he’d never thought of using the Patriot Act in the way I presented. But I liken the type of terror we have [in Miami] to when someone shoots up a parade.”
...
Whether his proposal will stick or even prove useful is unclear. The Patriot Act has been used — many would say abused — to investigate and target U.S. citizens who don’t appear to meet the definition of a terrorist. The anti-terror legislation has been cited, for instance, to authorize secretive “sneak-and-peek” warrants for drug-related cases. But the U.S. attorney’s office already uses the RICO and Hobbs acts to pursue charges against organized crime rings and violent gangs.
Just a few months ago, federal authorities charged the Big Money Team gang with terrorizing Little Havana and Allapattah through armed robberies, assaults and carjackings. They packaged charges through a seldom-used federal law, “violent crime in aid of racketeering.”
Still, Hardemon said Ferrer was receptive to embracing the Patriot Act. Ferrer declined through a spokeswoman to speak to the Miami Herald.
Michelle Richardson, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said it’s unlikely using the Patriot Act would provide investigators any power to go after gangsters beyond what they are already afforded. She said if anything, deeming local gangsters domestic terrorists might simply widen the already vast net of who can be investigated and chip away further at civil rights.
Last year, for instance, it was disclosed that the federal government used a legal interpretation of the Patriot Act to collect phone-call records in bulk. “Once you get into declaring purely criminal everyday activity terrorism you start a slippery slope,” she said.
...
Read more at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...le7057871.html
The Miama Herald
By David Smiley AND Charles Rabin
01/16/2015 8:06 PM
Excerpt:
For years, the federal government has used the Patriot Act as a tool to pursue and charge dangerous terrorists. But what if agents used the power afforded by the controversial anti-terror legislation in another way — to target local criminals who terrorize their own communities one bullet at a time?
That’s apparently an option on the table in Miami, where a wave of gun violence that engulfed inner city communities in 2014 has now spilled over into the new year. This week, Miami Commissioner Keon Hardemon and U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer discussed declaring local gangbangers “domestic terrorists” and investigating and prosecuting them as such, according to the commissioner.
“This is in the realm of what I call creative prosecuting,” said Hardemon, a former public defender who believes the Patriot Act would enable law enforcement to better investigate violent criminals and heap harsher penalties on perpetrators. Ferrer “admitted to me that he’d never thought of using the Patriot Act in the way I presented. But I liken the type of terror we have [in Miami] to when someone shoots up a parade.”
...
Whether his proposal will stick or even prove useful is unclear. The Patriot Act has been used — many would say abused — to investigate and target U.S. citizens who don’t appear to meet the definition of a terrorist. The anti-terror legislation has been cited, for instance, to authorize secretive “sneak-and-peek” warrants for drug-related cases. But the U.S. attorney’s office already uses the RICO and Hobbs acts to pursue charges against organized crime rings and violent gangs.
Just a few months ago, federal authorities charged the Big Money Team gang with terrorizing Little Havana and Allapattah through armed robberies, assaults and carjackings. They packaged charges through a seldom-used federal law, “violent crime in aid of racketeering.”
Still, Hardemon said Ferrer was receptive to embracing the Patriot Act. Ferrer declined through a spokeswoman to speak to the Miami Herald.
Michelle Richardson, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said it’s unlikely using the Patriot Act would provide investigators any power to go after gangsters beyond what they are already afforded. She said if anything, deeming local gangsters domestic terrorists might simply widen the already vast net of who can be investigated and chip away further at civil rights.
Last year, for instance, it was disclosed that the federal government used a legal interpretation of the Patriot Act to collect phone-call records in bulk. “Once you get into declaring purely criminal everyday activity terrorism you start a slippery slope,” she said.
...
Read more at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...le7057871.html
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