Muslim activists are suing the Los Angeles Police Department for withholding records about a long-stalled Muslim mapping plan that was "postponed indefinitely" due to public concerns over religious profiling.
Muslim Advocates, a nonprofit legal advocacy group, alleges in a lawsuit filed this week that the LAPD has offered "evolving justifications" for its refusal to produce the records.
First officials said they didn't exist, then they produced a handful of emails from a time well after the program ended, court documents said. Then LAPD officials said that the search for records would be too burdensome.
"The LAPD's arguments are not credible," court records said. "Indeed, they are contradicted by documents and statements authored by the LAPD itself, as well as by reliable press reports."
Muslim Advocates said that after repeated requests to refine the records request, officials at the LAPD have ceased responding, thus necessitating a lawsuit.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which voiced strong opposition to the program but is not a party to the lawsuit, said the government should be transparent.
"Any singling out of people of any faith, including the Muslim faith, for increased government scrutiny would violate the equal protection and freedom of religion guarantees of the U.S. Constitution," said Ahilan Arulanantham, the legal director of the ACLU of Southern California. "The government should be transparent about the processes that led it to initiate this misguided program and then to rescind it."
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LAPD Officer Rosario Herrera, a department spokeswoman, said she couldn't comment on pending litigation.
Then-LAPD Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing, who headed up the counterterrorism bureau at the time, talked about the "Community Mapping" plan in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
He said it would "give our officers increased awareness of our local Muslim communities" and identify Muslim enclaves to determine which might be likely to become isolated and susceptible to "violent, ideologically based extremism."
Shortly after the announcement the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and other Muslim rights activists, sent an open letter to the LAPD opposing the plan.
"There was a clear message from the Muslim community that they were not comfortable with it. So we listened," said Mary Grady, an LAPD spokeswoman told The Associated Press at the time.
