Brennan Center LIVE: Bad Partners: Why Local Law Enforcement Should Leave FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces

FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) inflict harm on local communities through racial profiling, harassment, suspicionless surveillance and investigations, and exploitation of immigration enforcement, all of which are authorized under federal guidelines loosened after 9/11. The FBI relies on the labor of state and local law enforcement officers assigned to the JTTFs, who agree to follow federal guidelines even if they conflict with state and local law, policies, and regulations. Civil rights advocates and community groups in Portland, San Francisco, and Oakland organized successful campaigns and lobbying operations to demand that their city legislatures hold local police accountable to local laws and ultimately withdraw from the JTTFs when the FBI refused to allow such public accountability. Advocates from each of these cities will discuss their efforts to organize public resistance to JTTF activities, enlist their elected representatives, craft legislation, and ultimately end local police participation in JTTFs, providing a model for other localities.

RSVP HERE.

SPEAKERS:

• Zahra Billoo, Executive Director, Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area (CAIR-SFBA) 
• Javeria Jamil, Staff Attorney, National Security and Civil Rights, Asian Americans Advancing Justice/Asian Law Caucus 
• Brandon Mayfield, Oregon Lawyer and Activist
• MODERATOR: Mike German, Fellow, Liberty and National Security Program, Brennan Center for Justice; Author, Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy