By Naeisha Rose
One week before the presidential election, leaders from different houses of faith and non-profits gathered in Glendale for a security preparedness workshop hosted by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing) and presented by FEMA and NYPD SHIELD, the counter-terrorism unit.
The workshop provided these leaders with step-by-step measures they could take to ready themselves, their houses of worship and organizations during both natural disasters and terrorist attacks, including bias crimes.
“We’ve just heard a lot of voices of concern from local non-profits and houses of worship and we want to do whatever we can to keep them safe,” Meng said. “There is a lot of knowledge out there on the federal, state and city level and we want to do whatever we can do to help disseminate it. I think it will help to keep our community safer,”
Faith leaders had a right to be concerned.
Just days after the divisive race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump ended, the FBI released a report saying there were 5,818 hate crime incidents nationwide in 2015 for an increase of about 7 percent above year-earlier levels. At the same time hate crimes targeting Muslims surged by 67 percent to 257, according to the agency.
“Recent events in the news show that we have to be proactive and vigilant more than ever before as we think about our security,” Meng said. According to Homeland Security, “threats at home are the most acute for the Jewish community (and) here in Queens there have been fires at synagogues that appear to be arson,” the congresswoman said. She pointed out that a local imam and his assistant were murdered in Queens in August.
As of Nov. 13, there had been “400 reports of hate-based intimidation and harassment” across the country post-election with 26 of the cases occurring New York, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Last year I had a chance to visit the Quba Center, a synagogue that was burnt down in Texas. So these are real issues facing our houses of worship, not just in Queens but throughout the country,” Meng said.
One of the guest speakers from NYPD SHIELD – Counter Terrorism was Detective Charles Ambio.
“Using our clergy liaison programs, our community partner programs, all the different programs that community affairs offers through the NYPD are targeted to different people whether it be by religious affiliation or different levels of the children’s auxiliary program and the block watcher program,” said Ambio. “The sharing of information is very important.”
During a slideshow presentation, it was suggested that non-profit organizations and houses of worships create collaborative planning teams that will come up with ways to respond to both natural disaster situations and terrorism.
Getting information about first responders and those with military backgrounds within the community was the first priority. Learning how to contact everyone in the congregation during emergency situations was second and having insurance in order to rebuild was third.
To find resources on how to be prepared during a natural disaster and terror threats you can access a free app by emailing asknl
