Tag Archives: northeastern

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Faculty Post: The Boston Tragedy Reveals the Need for Community-Based Counterterrorism Strategies

This blog post was written by Northeastern University School of Law Professor Deborah Ramirez, who founded the Partnering for Prevention and Community Safety Intitiative (PfP), and her colleague, Tara Lai Quinlan, for the Huffington Post.

As part of the Boston community, we share the sadness of last week’s Boston Marathon bombings. Thanks to excellent police work and public cooperation, Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev were identified as the perpetrators and are reportedly unaffiliated with any larger terrorist network. But going forward, how can law enforcement increase its ability to identify would-be terrorists operating below the radar?

Experts point out that many terrorist groups like al Qaeda are increasingly decentralized, making them difficult to monitor and infiltrate. Experts also highlight the limited ability of the federal counterterrorism infrastructure to identify independent terrorist cells and lone wolf terrorists; the difficulty of identifying readers of extremist propaganda; and, most importantly, the challenges determining which individuals will turn to violent action. In this case, the FBI questioned Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011, possibly about his interest in extremist Internet propaganda or ties to Chechnya, but apparently lacked sufficient information to detain him further. With this in mind, how can law enforcement gain the intelligence necessarily to stop potential terrorists before they act?

Congressman Peter King, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, has one proposal: he has renewed calls for increased surveillance of all Muslim communities. King asserts that this is the same practice used against Irish and Italian gangsters involved in organized crime. But that is simply not the case. Monitoring individuals suspected of involvement in organized crime is readily distinguishable from surveilling millions of American Muslims absent any reasonable suspicion criminal wrongdoing.

Moreover, there is now significant consensus among most intelligence experts that profiling based on religious affiliation is ineffective because it is too widely shared a characteristic to be a shortcut for identifying those who might engage in violence. Furthermore, as civil liberties experts have long argued, profiling based on religion unnecessarily alienates communities that could potentially serve as important partners for law enforcement in countering terrorism.

Rather than support Congressman King’s approach, we believe the Boston tragedy offers lessons to improve our national security infrastructure but remain more consistent with our democratic values of justice, fairness, and human decency.

In this case, it is now emerging from friends and associates of the Tsarnaevs that, upon reflection, they sensed something might have been amiss before the attacks. For example, Tamerlan Tsarnaev reportedly twice disrupted services at a local mosque. And there may be an additional trail of unusual speech or behavior — refusing to see friends or family, posting violent messages on the Internet, contemplating death — that would have alerted family, friends or community members to something being out of place. But whom could they have alerted to these concerns? Could they have confidence that information shared with law enforcement would be discreetly and professionally handled? Could they be assured that police would not overreact, but would instead rationally determine if there were genuine issues requiring further investigation? For law enforcement to benefit from voluntary community intelligence they must create trust relationships allowing community members to articulate concerns that may or may not indicate an intention to engage in violence. This also means incorporating collaborative, long-term community-police partnerships into the national counterterrorism strategy.

But partnerships are not easy to build. Partnerships are not achieved through coercion, force, or infiltration. They require voluntary engagement with communities through mutual trust and cooperation. This means winning the hearts and minds of communities so they become real partners in counterterrorism efforts and work collaboratively to address problems of common concern.

Partnerships have already been piloted in domestic counterterrorism efforts, and have been used for years in cities like Dearborn, Los Angeles, and London. And beyond the counterterrorism context, partnerships have achieved success in reducing gang violence in cities like Boston and Glasgow, and drugs sales in places like High Point, North Carolina. It is by relying on common sense that the national security infrastructure can be expanded to address some of its current limitations.

It is true that not all terrorist acts in the United States can be avoided, and unfortunately more will succeed. But by incorporating voluntary, partnership-based community intelligence gathering practices into our national security infrastructure, we can improve our chances of preventing some attacks.

(Reprinted with permission from Professor Ramirez. You can find original post here.)

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Faculty Post: The Art of Co-op

by Luke Bierman, Associate Dean for Experiential Education and Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law

Cooperative Legal Education (“co-op”) is like art. Its beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. For each student, it’s the opportunity to create a canvas of professional development and achievement. For each member of the faculty, it’s the opportunity to make teaching more vibrant. For each employer, it’s the opportunity to identify and benefit from each student’s passion, enthusiasm and knowledge. For legal education, it’s the opportunity to rethink how to prepare lawyers to serve clients now and in the future.

My introduction to Northeastern University School of Law came a couple of years ago when I was exploring options for the next phase of my career. Having graduated from law school in 1982, I didn’t follow the usual path, which centered on progressive advancement in a law office of some kind with a capstone as a managing attorney or judge. Instead, I have gravitated between teaching and practice or policy work, back and forth. This unusual approach to a career, at least for someone of my generation, mirrors the co-op experience. Back and forth, back and forth, in a clerkship, in practice, in a Ph.D. program, in advocacy jobs, in universities, in government, in a law school, all the while integrating these activities and experiences into a fulsome palette of a career.

Little did I know that I was rehearsing for a job at the most innovative and interesting law school in America. Like so many things in life, I wasn’t expecting this opportunity at Northeastern. But I was prepared for it because I had developed skills and knowledge that were useful. The value of not just thinking but also doing has begun to infiltrate a broader spectrum of education but it is not news to Northeastern. And since my career has been built on thinking and doing, over and over, it made perfect sense for me to come work in that environment.

I learned quickly that something special was going on at Northeastern. Steve Subrin, of the founding generation of co-op, quietly explained to me that I’d love it at Northeastern because people are helpful in ways that other schools can’t emulate.  Steve didn’t describe it all to me; this is after all a place of experiential education.

So I’ve learned quickly that students are busy learning through classes and co-op and activities, focusing on coursework and co-op while simultaneously looking forward to co-op and coursework, instead of being overly competitive or overly harsh. Combining thinking and doing, integrating classroom and co-op, Northeastern students immerse themselves in the reality of law and its practice in all possible settings in service to the public interest. Northeastern’s community, rooted in experiential learning and social justice, truly practices what it preaches.

There is no doubt that there are many challenges in the legal profession. But with challenge comes opportunity. As the delivery of legal services changes, today’s students will be able to influence the development of our profession and the system of justice in which it operates. My generation had great ambition but many problems remain to be solved. This generation of law students can avail itself of all the new cultural, technological, economic and social developments to help address the challenges and solve the problems. And they will create art while doing good for themselves and those around them.

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Prof. Daniel Medwed on Morning Edition about Ortiz

From WBUR: U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz was criticized for her office’s prosecution of Internet activist Aaron Swartz, who killed himself in January. (Elise Amendola/AP)

Northeastern University School of Law professor Daniel Medwed said it is shocking that a federal case could get out of the grand jury, let alone go to trial, without the prosecutor speaking to the alleged victims. The episode raises concerns about whether there are adequate checks and balances in the office, he added — something many critics of the Swartz prosecution noted as well.

“One of the jokes in New York is that they would indict a ham sandwich,” he said. “Well, here in Massachusetts, it seems a federal jury doesn’t even need the protein. It seems it would take only a couple of loaves of bread, given how flimsy and un-nutritious these cases were.”

–from WBUR‘s investigation of US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, “Ortiz Under Fire“

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‘Genius’ NUSL alumna advocates for elder-​​abuse reform

Marie-Therese Connolly, a 1984 School of Law graduate who received a prestigious MacArthur Foundation grant in 2011, returned to campus this week as a Daynard Distinguished Visiting Fellow. Photo by Brooks Canaday.

Abuse is endemic among the nation’s senior pop­u­la­tion, with a large per­centage of older Amer­i­cans suf­fering from often-​​unreported cases of abuse, neglect, or exploita­tion, according to School of Law alumna Marie-​​Therese Con­nolly. And with the number of Amer­i­cans entering their golden years about to sky­rocket as the baby boom gen­er­a­tion ages, Con­nolly is leading the charge to pro­tect one of society’s most vul­ner­able cohorts.

“Elder abuse top­ples over oth­er­wise autonomous people’s lives,” said Con­nolly, a 1984 law grad­uate who in 2011 was awarded a Genius Grant by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foun­da­tion. “The trauma is so depleting that they often don’t have the ability or the time to recover the way younger people do.”

Con­nolly is back at North­eastern this week through the Day­nard Dis­tin­guished Vis­iting Fel­lows Pro­gram, which brings notable prac­ti­tioners of public-​​interest law to campus for a three-​​day visit. Con­nolly deliv­ered a lec­ture to stu­dents and fac­ulty on Monday and will par­tic­i­pate in a round­table dis­cus­sion on elder abuse on Wednesday at noon in 240 Dockser Hall.

Richard Day­nard, center, a Uni­ver­sity Dis­tin­guished Pro­fessor of Law, and his wife, Carol Iskois Day­nard, sup­port the Day­nard Dis­tin­guished Vis­iting Fel­lows Pro­gram. Photo by Brooks Canaday.

The bian­nual series was estab­lished in 2004 and is sup­ported by Richard Day­nard, Uni­ver­sity Dis­tin­guished Pro­fessor of Law, and his wife, Carol Iskois Day­nard. In October, the series fea­tured Leslye Orloff, director of the National Immi­grant Women’s Advo­cacy Project.

Con­nolly, who is director of the Life Long Jus­tice ini­tia­tive at the Apple­seed Foun­da­tion and a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Inter­na­tional Center for Scholars, said elder abuse is a growing problem that lacks a cohe­sive infra­struc­ture for advo­cacy. Without strong orga­ni­za­tions working to combat the issue, it is dif­fi­cult to frame a national con­ver­sa­tion, draw aca­d­emic atten­tion, or craft mean­ingful solu­tions, she explained.

Her pro­posed Elder Jus­tice Act—which was con­sid­ered by Con­gress five times before a lim­ited ver­sion was enacted in 2010—is mod­eled after 1974’s Child Abuse Pre­ven­tion and Treat­ment Act and 1994’s Vio­lence Against Women Act, both pieces of leg­is­la­tion whose impact still res­onates strongly today.

Con­nolly said law stu­dents can approach the issue of elder abuse from myriad angles, working any­where from within grass­roots orga­ni­za­tions to posts at the highest level of fed­eral gov­ern­ment. Because most Amer­i­cans do not con­sider elder abuse to be a per­sonal issue, the cause needs legal pro­fes­sionals to serve as advo­cates who can influ­ence change.

“The target audi­ence is not just old people—we have to reach everyone,” Con­nolly said. “These are issues that impact your par­ents or your grand­par­ents or some­body else that you know and care about.”

Con­nolly said North­eastern was the per­fect place for her to hone her skills and foster an advocacy-​​focused mindset.

“The way North­eastern went about edu­ca­tion was the best—and maybe the only—way I could learn about the law,” Con­nolly said. “North­eastern is full of people like us who want to use the law to make real change … and it helps us to buff out those rough edges and get to work.”

Article from news@Northeastern by Matt Collette

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Sports fan?

Babe Ruth pitching with Boston Red Sox, Comins...

Babe Ruth pitching with Boston Red Sox, Cominsky Park, 1914 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Check out what NUSL Prof. Roger Abrams has to say about the new Red Sox manager on Boston Public Radio. Prof. Abrams Professor Abrams has published five books on the business and history of sports: Legal Bases: Baseball and the Law (1998), The Money Pitch: Baseball Free Agency and Salary Arbitration (2000), The First World Series and the Baseball Fanatics of 1903 (2003) and The Dark Side of the Diamond: Gambling, Violence, Drugs and Alcoholism in the National Pastime (2008). His most recent book, Sports Justice, was published in 2010. He is a former salary arbitrator for Major League Baseball.