Day: April 28, 2009

Portland, Maine: Sudanese refugee pulls out gun and is killed by police

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Another Sudanese refugee has been killed, this time by police, in Portland, ME.  From AP in the Sun Journal:

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Police officials met with members of the city’s Sudanese community to try to calm fears after police officers shot and killed an armed 26-year-old Sudanese man, the second violent death of a Sudanese immigrant in seven months.

Two Portland officers fired multiple shots at the man Saturday night when he reached into his waistband and brandished a gun, police said. In the chaotic moments after the shooting, neighbors heatedly accused police of shooting when they didn’t have to.

Some months ago we reported on this still unsolved murder case of another Sudanese refugee in Portland.  The Sudanese community was up in arms that the son of a prominant Sudanese leader was gunned down. 

In September, a Sudanese man was shot to death outside Mercy Hospital while on the job as a security guard. The case remains unsolved.

Both cases are unfortunate, but we expect that our legal system will resolve them.

However, this is the part of the story that interested me in light of our recent discussion on assimilation and multiculturalism.  I believe these ETHNIC Community based organizations (ECBO’s in immigrant industry speak) are detrimental to America.

There are an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 Sudanese refugees in Portland. Sara Epicho, general secretary of the Sudanese Community Association, said many in the community feel sad, angry and empty at the same time. Most of all, they want answers.

“This time the shooting was done by police,” she said. “And we haven’t gotten an exact picture of the situation. All of us are affected.”

Does Ms. Epicho mean all citizens of Portland are affected and saddened/angry or just the Sudanese COMMUNITY?   Why is it necessary for each ethnic group in a city to have its own watchdog group as if each group has grievances based solely on where they came from?   Instead of protecting THEIR rights they should be encouraged to join all Americans in protecting OUR rights.

This whole concept, an unbelievably divisive one, of forming Ethnic COMMUNITY groups thwarts assimilation and most outrageously is funded largely by the taxpayer as I pointed out in this post in February 2008.   Here is what I said about government-sponsored  ECBO workshops then, and I’m still saying it!

Now, here is what I wonder.  Why do we need all these ECBO’s?   Doesn’t the establishment of groups called Montagnard Human Rights Organization,  Bosnian American Association of New York City,  and the Boat People SOS simply continue to separate us in America, to  continue to accentuate our differences?  Shouldn’t we have workshops and conferences on how refugees should assimilate into America?  

Somalis, the terrorist threat, and Hillary Clinton

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A useful article came into my inbox yesterday from the Northern Virginia/Richmond/DC Metro chapter of ACT! for America, giving the background of our country’s relationship with Somalia and the threat to America from Somalis. I’m going to quote extensively from this piece by Ruth King — Somalia: Why Isn’t Secretary Clinton Connecting the Dots? — but I recommend you read the whole thing.

She begins by mocking Hillary Clinton for her ignorant and superficial response to the Somali pirates, and to Somalis in general. Clinton

would not want to revisit [Bill Clinton’s] disastrous policy in Somalia which contributed mightily to the chaos, instability, terrorism and carnage which prevail there today.

Nor, would she want to explain her present employer’s paralysis in the face of naked Jihadi aggression.

Nor, would she want to tackle the difficult question of why Somali-Americans “disappear” from Minnesota to go train with Somali terrorists. And, she certainly would not want to discuss the implementation of Sharia law in Somalia since we don’t have a “foreign contingency” policy with respect to Somalia a member of the all Muslim Arab League. Furthermore, her recollection of the history of the Barbary Wars…um…a long…time ago is so pathetic…So, it’s just the usual ha-ha-ha.

She goes on to relate Somalia’s “long and virtually uninterrupted history of hating America,” beginning in 1969 with a bloody coup by a major general who allied himself and received training from the Soviets. Another coup in 1991 led to a civil war, followed by a terrible drought.

President George H.W. Bush sent troops, President Clinton withdrew them, and there was more chaos and carnage. In 1993 Clinton sent troops, and this led to what Americans remember of Somalia — the incident in Mogadishu.

U.S. soldiers on the ground were left without armed vehicles or sufficient firepower from the air. The Clinton administration and then Secretary of Defense, the late Les Aspin, repeatedly denied the Special ops teams’ and the Rangers’ requests for more armored vehicles, AC-130 gunships and tanks.

The American public witnessed gruesome televised scenes of rampaging Muslim Somalis dragging and desecrating the bodies of American troops.  Congress demanded a withdrawal and Clinton did a “cut and run” operation leaving Somalia in worse shape than ever and Aidid unbowed. The end result was the perception that America can be defied by any rag tag army of terrorists.

So that is our connection with Somalia, and probably the reason we felt duty-bound to take in refugees from there. The author goes on to give a good summary of their jihadist activities, both overt and stealth.

Since 1983 we have admitted 83,991 Muslim Somali immigrants into the U.S. More then half, 43,682, came since September 11th, and of those, the majority went to Minnesota (Keith Ellison’s state).

…Somali Americans did not assimilate and have grown increasingly militant in cities where they have a significant presence. And they are of concern to law-enforcement agencies.

In March 2006, Fox News reported on the alarming number of Muslims taking truck driving lessons in Kansas City. FBI investigated the school and found that the vast majority of its students were Somalis. Trucks which carry hazardous materials are as dangerous as planes.

This story became more ominous in September 2006 when Debbie Schlussel disclosed how many Muslims (a majority were Somali) got fraudulent certificates to drive 18- wheelers.

From Arizona, August 26, 2008:The Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Somali Association of Arizona had pressured Sky Harbor International Airport for the right to wear attire that accommodates their religious needs.

Here is a news item from September 2008 in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

“In a landmark settlement that could change the way Muslims are treated in the workplace, St. Cloud-based Gold’n Plump Inc. has agreed to allow Somali workers short prayer breaks and the right to refuse handling pork at its poultry processing facilities….. The agreement follows a year-long examination by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and a class-action lawsuit brought in October 2006 on behalf of nine Somali immigrants who worked at Gold’n Plump’s poultry processing plants in Cold Spring, Minn., and Arcadia, Wis.”

In April 2007 Somali taxi drivers in Minneapolis refused to take passengers with dogs or alcohol, including a blind student with a Seeing Eye dog. Roughly three quarters of Minneapolis cab drivers are Somali Muslims and their case was strongly supported by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota.

The demands then escalated for footbaths in schools, airports and malls, culminating with the establishment of the controversial Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center – and the smaller but equally influential Islamic Al Dahwa Center of St. Paul, from which dozens of young Somali men have “disappeared” without a trace, and authorities believe they have joined terrorist groups in Somalia. And, of course the imams of the mosques deny any involvement with terrorism. So do all the hijab mothers.

She goes on to discuss Al-Shabab, the Somali jihadist group, and quotes Robert Spencer connecting the pirates to these terrorists. She concludes that Hillary Clinton needs to connect the dots and take the threat seriously and “confront the great threat to America which is taking root within our shores. This includes a reevaluation of our “no profiling” immigration and refugee laws and a revamping of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act.” And she is clear that this is unlikely to happen.

Happy to be here, a Bhutanese family is resettled in Oakland, CA

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is the third in the troika of posts I mentioned yesterday about Bhutanese refugees arriving in the US (the first two are here and here).  This family has been resettled in “welcoming” Oakland, CA where we reported  just a couple of days ago that there has been an uptick in crime effecting refugees and immigrants.

First, more on the background of this Nepalese ethnic group which we will be resettling by the tens of thousands over the next five years (this article actually says we are taking the majority of the 100,000 living in camps in Nepal).   This is a lesson in the rise of ethnic nationalism, see Judy’s post on the topic more than a year ago.   From the Contra Costa Times:

Bhim Timsina had the most to say, sharing a long, bleak story about a kingdom that expelled a sixth of its people. “There became two types of people in Bhutan,” he said of his native country. His people — those of Nepali descent — were the type who had to leave.

[…..]

Timsina was 8 years old when his family was expelled from the farmland they had ox-plowed for generations, a fertile seven acres that yielded rice, millet, buckwheat, cauliflower and spinach.

Their Nepali ancestors first migrated to Bhutan’s arable southern Chirang region as farmers in the late 19th century, and it was not until the 1980s that the Timsinas found themselves unwelcome there.

They were called Lhotshampas — the “People of the South.” They dressed differently from the Drukpa ethnic majority but had for years peacefully coexisted with them. They practiced Hinduism, not Buddhism. They spoke Nepali at home, not the national Dzongkha language. They lived in the warmer lowlands, not the northern Drukpa highlands that are considered the heart of the Himalayan country.

When the Bhutanese king enacted a policy called “One Nation, One People,” it enshrined Drukpa culture and made its traditions mandatory in Bhutanese schools and public life. Lhotshampas protested, fueling government claims that their expanding population, and feared alignment with Maoist rebels, could threaten the monarchy and Drukpa way of life.

And because official documents had no record of Timsina’s parents in a 1958 census, the family and tens of thousands of others were dubbed illegal immigrants and banished in the early 1990s.

Unlike the Iraqi refugees we have been writing about who are unhappy with life generally in the US, this refugee family is making the best of the tough times.  Although stressed about finances and jobs, and for the older generation not much contact with the outside world, this family will likely make it.

At the Timsina home in East Oakland, the climate has been a mix of optimism, frugality and nervous uncertainty.

[….]

But the happiness can be elusive. As the months have passed, Timsina said he has now come to believe that much of what he learned in Nepal “relates only to Nepal. Now, I realize it is quite difficult. Going to college, it is so costly. I cannot pay for that.”

[….]

In mid-May, he will have completed his first eight months in the country, meaning his federally-funded refugee cash assistance of $359 a month will expire. Fortunately, after impressing his teachers at The English Center, he was hired to work part-time after classes as an evening receptionist.

[….]

Timsina’s father, Bedha, 60, and mother, Lachhi, 50, have a few extra months of checks and food stamps because they arrived later, but they are less likely to find a job after their help expires.

[….]

“For my existence, I will do any kind of work,” Bhim Timsina said. “But I need to aim quite high.”