In 2014, the White House announced that Boston would be the site of a “countering violent extremism” (CVE) pilot program, along with Los Angeles and Minneapolis. In Massachusetts, the Department of Justice (U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts), and later, Department of Homeland Security have funded a number of CVE programs.
Department of Justice (“PEACE Project”) Grants
In February, 2015, after selecting and convening governmental and non-governmental participants in a number of meetings, the US Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts (USAO-MA) — the agency charged with prosecuting federal crimes, including terrorism-related crimes, in Massachusetts — published a framework for CVE in Massachusetts. (Participants selected by the USAO-MA for its “Greater Boston Regional Collaborative” are listed in Appendix A of this framework.)
In September, 2015, the USAO-MA tapped Massachusetts’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) to serve as an intermediary for CVE grants to community organizations. In an email obtained by MuckRock through public records request, reacting to a petition from 1000 Massachusetts residents calling on EOHHS to end its involvement in CVE, a Law Enforcement Coordinator for the USAO-MA explained to EOHHS contacts: “…EOHHS’s engagement is key so that this can be framed as a public health issue.”
In January, 2017, EOHHS granted the CVE funds it received from the USAO-MA through what was called the “PEACE [Promoting Engagement, Acceptance and Community Empowerment] Project” to three Boston area non-profit organizations. You can read their grant applications below, received through public records requests.
On April 6, 2017, due to ongoing concerns about CVE, and following explicit anti-Muslim proposals and orders by the Trump Administration, 39 organizations including MJL sent a letter to the PEACE Project grantees urging them to decline these CVE funds.
MJL has received, through public records requests to EOHHS, quarterly and final reports on the “PEACE Project” grants linked below as well as the contracts with each grantee, linked above.
Department of Homeland Security Grants
In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded 26 grants, totaling $10 million, for CVE projects. These included two grants awarded in Massachusetts, whose applications are linked below. (The complete list of applicants for DHS CVE grants is here. Note: clicking the link will cause the document to download. More information about the DHS-funded CVE programs across the U.S. has been compiled by Brennan Center for Justice.)
- Youth and Police Initiative Plus – This CVE project was proposed to be a collaboration between The Police Foundation, The North American Family Institute, The Boston Police Department (BPD), and the Somali Community and Cultural Association. The project description starts on page 30 of the linked public records, and includes the following: “A key tenant (sic) of the training is that underneath the antipathy and mistrust youth have for police, there is also a curious attraction to their power and ability to use it. They are enticed by their capacity to carry weapons, their loyalty, and almost gang-like dress code. As they progress through the training, youth make personal connections to participating officers, experiencing the cognitive dissonance that accompanies change.”
When MJL learned, via a public records response, of BPD’s involvement in the “Youth and Police Initiative Plus” (YPIP) CVE program, MJL and several organizations raised concerns about its premises and treatment of Somali youth as potential threats, and we urged BPD to end its involvement, including via a letter endorsed by 29 organizations. Subsequently, MJL filed another public records request about YPIP and received a partial response, citing an unsupported exemption in order to withhold draft surveys to be used in the program. With the generous help of attorneys at Muslim Advocates, we successfully appealed the withholding of those records. Read the draft YPIP surveys, and internal emails discussing them. Among the questions in the draft surveys were:
For police officers: “How much support for extremism do you believe there is among Muslims living in the U.S? (A great deal, A fair amount, Not much, or None at all)” and,“How many Muslims in the U.S., if any, are anti-American? (Almost all, About half/some, or Just a few/none)”
For youth participants, questions included: “What is your attitude toward Muslim radicalization in general? (Very negative, Negative, Positive, or Very Positive).”
Read the final YPIP surveys, which revise or eliminate some of the draft survey questions.
- The New Freedoms Intervention – This CVE project was proposed by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS) for the Department of Corrections.
