[nfbmi-talk] goes to disability rights too

[joe harcz Comcast]

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100915/METRO/9150426/1361/Justice-department-to-open-Detroit-area-civil-rights-unit

Justice department to open Detroit-area civil rights unit

 

Robert Snell / The Detroit News

 

Detroit -- The Department of Justice announced today it is creating a civil rights unit for the Detroit region.

 

The unit will handle investigation and prosecution of cases involving police misconduct, housing discrimination, hate crimes, violations of the Americans

with Disabilities Act, employment discrimination and violations of the Uniform Service Members Civil Relief Act.

 

 

The unit is headed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith Levy.

 

The move comes at a time of difficult relations among police agencies and a Muslim civil rights group that has sued for information related to the killing

of a Detroit mosque leader, who died during a shootout with the FBI.

 

Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights division, made the announcement today in Detroit along with U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade

and Andrew Arena, special agent in charge of the FBI in Detroit.

 

"We are open for business," McQuade said today. "Nothing is more important than the freedoms we enjoy as Americans."

 

Last month, the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Michigan chapter filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits in Wayne Circuit Court against the Detroit

and Dearborn police departments. The group also has sued the Michigan State Police, which was part of a task force that conducted raids that led to the

death of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah at a Dearborn warehouse in October.

 

Abdullah was shot 20 times by FBI agents after he allegedly fired a weapon and killed an FBI dog.

 

The gunfire occurred during an attempted arrest in connection with an indictment involving dealing in stolen goods and other alleged crimes.

 

To report suspected civil rights violations, call the unit's hotline at (313) 226-9151.