Pre-9/11 Terrorism and Its Impact on Law Enforcement

Competencies Addressed in This Discussion

• Competency 1: Analyze causal factors of terrorism related to domestic and international terrorism.

Introduction

To most of us, 9/11 and the events leading up to it are when we began noticing the impact of terrorism upon law enforcement and its policies, procedures, and structure. However, terrorism did not begin with 9/11. Throughout history, there have been terrorist events that have resulted in significant changes to law enforcement policies and procedures. In this discussion, we will investigate a few of them.Continuing with the scenario begun in the first discussion, suppose you are the captain of your local police municipality. As captain, you have provided the chief with a memo that explained the terms, terrorist and terrorism and provided a historical context for the motivations behind such actions. For his second memo request, the chief wants you to explain why his department should be concerned with a terrorist event happening in his city, and why changes to policy are warranted. He particularly wants to know about any events pre-9/11, and how they compare to post-9/11 events. He is not yet convinced that history is a predictor of the future.For your initial discussion post:

• Identify a terrorist event from history, pre-9/11.
• Summarize the event, as well as the motivation behind it.
• Compare the pre-9/11 terrorist event to a recent, post-9/11—and similarly motivated—terrorist event in the U.S.
• Analyze how this event resulted in a change to law enforcement policy or procedure.

Discussion Objectives

• Competency 1: Analyze causal factors of terrorism related to domestic and international terrorism.
  • Identify a terrorist event from history, pre-9/11.
  • Summarize the event, as well as the motivation behind it.
  • Compare it to a recent, post-9/11—and similarly motivated—terrorist event in the U.S.
  • Analyze how this event resulted in a change to law enforcement policy or procedure.

Response Guidelines

Respond to at least two other learners. When responding to your peers, reflect upon their scenarios, in regard to common motivation between events as well as law enforcement response to the events. How did your assessment of motivation align with or differ from other learner assessments? How was your perspective impacted by reading the posts of other learners, specific to motivation? What do you think about the law enforcement responses to the changes in policy or procedure? Do you think the law enforcement changes were or will be effective in the future?

Resources

• CJ Discussion Participation Scoring Guide.
• G.R.E.A.T. Discussion Guidelines.
• Community of Excellence.
• Criminal Justice Undergraduate Research Guide.