Remarks of Attorney General Loretta Lynch announcing the formation of the Strong Cities Network to fight violent extremism:

Thank you, Mayor [Bill] de Blasio, for those kind words; for your dedication to promoting equality and expanding opportunity; and for your service to the people of this great city – the city I call home.  I would also like to recognize High Commissioner for Human Rights [Prince Zeid Ra’ad] Al Hussein and the UN-Habitat program for their inspiring work and bold leadership as we work to create a future of sustainable peace, development and opportunity.  And I’d like to thank all of the mayors and other municipal leaders who are helping to ensure safe and prosperous futures for our communities and our world by serving on the Steering Committee of the Strong Cities Network.  It’s a pleasure to join such a distinguished group of world leaders on this historic occasion and it’s a privilege to represent the Obama Administration and the United States as we inaugurate this innovative, collaborative and critically important global effort . . .

We gather today at a crucial moment of challenge and opportunity for the security of our nations and the well-being of humankind.  Fourteen years ago, not far from where we stand today, terrorists carried out a vicious assault on democratic values and inclusive societies everywhere.  Their brutal attack claimed the lives of thousands of innocent victims – including citizens from 90 nations.  And in the years since that morning when terror rained from the sky, we have continued to see violent extremists emerge from within our own communities – from terrorists inspired by groups like ISIL to fanatics motivated by hatred against religious or ethnic factions.  Some aspire to travel overseas to train or to fight.  Others plot attacks on targets within their homelands.  But all are antithetical to the shared vision and common cause that joins us here today in this renowned international forum: commitment to collaboration; dedication to peace; and devotion to the cause of justice within our nations and throughout the world.

It is clear that the challenge of building resilience against violent extremism – a challenge that spans vast oceans and borders while impacting our most tightly-knit cities and towns – requires a response that is both wide-ranging and highly focused.  National governments have a crucial role to play in ensuring the safety and security of the nations they serve – and here in the United States, it is our highest priority.  Neither the Justice Department I lead nor the administration in which I serve will ever back down from our commitment and our responsibility to safeguard our citizens and defend our homeland.  But as a lifelong prosecutor and as a former United States Attorney here in New York, I have also seen firsthand how local authorities can serve as the front lines of our defense against violent extremism.  As residents and experts in their communities, local leaders are often best positioned to pinpoint sources of unrest and discord; best equipped to identify signs of potential danger; and best able to recognize and accommodate community cultures, traditions, sensitivities and customs.  By creating a series of partnerships that draws on the knowledge and expertise of our local officials, we can create a more effective response to this virulent threat.

The government of the United States is fully invested in this collaborative approach and we have seen the value of empowering local communities by promoting initiatives they design and lead themselves.  Through our Model Regions program, federal officials have partnered with a wide array of local stakeholders – including government and public safety officers, social service providers, educators, businesses and nonprofits – to build and implement community resilience frameworks tailored to the unique needs of residents.  In Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, for example, government officials, private partners and civic leaders have come together to create a mentorship program for Somali youth; to build an “opportunity hub” that provides educational resources and job training; and to contribute to a program called Youthprise that is forging connections between community organizations, investors and young people.  At the same time, officials in the Greater Boston region are exploring the connection between criminal justice and public health by partnering with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services to tap their experience with violence prevention and intervention.  And in the Denver area, the United States Attorney’s Office has led a multifaceted community engagement and education effort involving all levels of government.  These initiatives and others like them were the subject of a convening just two weeks ago, organized by our Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, in conjunction with the Police Executive Research Forum, which brought together law enforcement executives and community partners from over a dozen cities to plan ways to translate these cutting-edge programs into new regions.

These efforts have shown us the power of harnessing local expertise and leveraging local leadership to create targeted and effective approaches to eradicating violent extremism in any community.  We have learned that open dialogue and consistent engagement with a wide range of constituents is essential to crafting strategies and forging partnerships that will address the full scope of the threats we face.  We have seen that communities must be empowered to take these steps themselves so that the prevention approaches they design are crafted for their unique situations.  And we have observed the need for a mechanism that will expand the most effective efforts to reach more people around the globe – a way to highlight the best local ideas so that they can be adapted for use in other communities.

Until now, we have lacked that mechanism.  We haven’t had the benefit of sustained or coordinated cooperation among the growing number of cities and municipalities that are confronting this ongoing challenge.  Communities have too often been left isolated and alone.  But through the Strong Cities Network that we have unveiled today, we are making the first systematic effort in history to bring together cities around the world to share experiences, to pool resources and to forge partnerships in order to build local cohesion and resilience on a global scale.  Today we tell every city, every town and every community that has lost the flower of its youth to a sea of hatred – you are not alone.  We stand together and we stand with you.

This is a truly groundbreaking endeavor.  By connecting municipal leaders, facilitating information-sharing and providing training and other assistance where appropriate, the Strong Cities Network will help to fashion a global response to a global issue, without losing sight of its inherently local roots.  It will offer city leaders a way to learn from one another about successful initiatives and productive programs.  It will provide a platform for discussing community policing and prevention strategies that safeguard the individual rights of citizens.  And it will support the practical delivery of community resilience programs in cities that are taking a new look at this evolving issue.

I want you to know that the Obama Administration is deeply committed to ensuring that the Strong Cities Network is as strong, vibrant and resilient as the cities it unites – because we know this model works.  Here in the United States, we have joined with local partners to bring down far-flung human trafficking rings, to strengthen trust in law enforcement, to thwart cybersecurity threats and to combat official and international corruption.  Our experience tells us that partnering with city-level officials and the communities they represent extends the reach and deepens the perspective of national governments and international alliances.  And connecting those localities to one another – as the Strong Cities Network is doing – is not only a powerful way to lift up our communities worldwide.  It also sends a message about who we are and what we aspire to be – as an alliance of nations and as a global community.  When the representatives of the Strong Cities Network join together for their first Annual Summit in Paris in Spring 2016, they will be making a strong and clear statement to their citizens and to the world: we stand united against violence, united against fear and united in the pursuit of a better and brighter future.

This work will not be easy.  There will be difficult days for us all.  But the spirit of collaboration I see before me today – the devotion to partnership and mutual support – gives me confidence in our effort and hope for the journey ahead.  Thank you, once again, for your outstanding service.  Thank you for your visionary leadership on a project without precedent.  And thank you for your commitment to the mission of our time.

 

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59 COMMENTS

    • If it’s longer than the Gettysburg Address and full of empty platitudes, you’re doing it wrong, lady.

    • Much to do about nothing. Giggled at the word steakholders and the part about giving Somalis jobs in Minneapolis. What she’s really saying is we’re gonna shove the 4th amendment so far up your ass, you’ll read it from the back side of your eyeballs.

    • You’d think bureaucrats were paid by the syllable, wouldn’t you?

      Translation/summary, or at least my take:

      Bad stuff happens. Lots of different kinds of it. Some cities are having some success dealing with it (or so we and they claim). We’re going to try to apply what (may or may not) works locally to everyone’s problems globally. So let’s keep talking.

      For the children.

      • “You’d think bureaucrats were paid by the syllable, wouldn’t you?”

        Wish I wrote those words….my chuckle for the day.

    • She said: Something bad happened. We are going to use it as an excuse to spend more of your money and seize more power to create more bureaucracy that will not do any good.

    • +1…”glittering generalities” that tax money will pay for and most likely erode freedoms at the same time.

  3. Whatever the hell she said, I don’t like it and I want no part of it.

    She’s an Obama appointee and she’s addressing the United Nations. Nothin’ good goin’ on here.

  4. Lawyers and politicians always seem to need so many words to say so little. Only recent exception that I remember was Ronald Reagan.

    • Yeah, that senile old sock-puppet lied using less words.

      The facts are that POS grew Fedzilla, drastically reduced gun rights, and doubled the national debt while cutting taxes on those who should be paying them.

      Learn the facts on that “neo-con” disaster.

      • Yeah, the facts are that Obama was still spending the spoils of his tax reduction policies, after Clinton and the POS (D) Congress and Senate tried to spend and gut it. Hell, Clinton had a multi-Billion tobacco settlement to squander and Obsma had cheap fuel prices and did TWO mASSive money give-aways and their evonomies have been broke-f-ing-di<K. You are out of your mind if you don't think Reagan was one of the best presidents this country has had, especially compared to the syphalitic politicians that satan's luberal evil blue house of (D) bag a-holes have threown at us over the last two cemturies.
        FU stupid, our kids grandkids are going to have to civil war. But it'll be to fix your broken sh_t.

        • Where in there did I state any love for Obama? The whole point is that Reagan was no conservative – he was a neocon, and did many incredibly not conservative things. Saint Ronnie said one thing and did just the opposite.

  6. You keep right on talking lady. I’m sure those Jihadist will be glad to praise you while their SAWING OFF YOUR HEAD. Hell lady you don’t even deserve to have that head anyway…. if that’s the best you can do with it.

    I swear these people are dumb as posts… Good thing there’s enough bearded men with ARs to keep us actually safe.

  7. she said there will be a boondoggle in Paris next spring. Hoping Shannon will come since it is such a romantic city. I have to pull some of my frequent flyer miles together. . . .

    • At least you won’t need to take the labels off your Cubans to bring them back through customs.

  9. Obama now intends to empower a UN Police force to combat violent extremism on American soil – starting in several major cities. The violent extremists are conservative Patriots who refuse to accept Islamic supremacy over our homeland – those of us who are resisting the Shariah.

    On Wednesday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced at the United Nations that her office would be working in several American cities to form what she called the Strong Cities Network (SCN), a law enforcement initiative that would encompass the globe.

    This amounts to nothing less than the overriding of American laws, up to and including the United States Constitution, in favor of United Nations laws that would henceforth be implemented in the United States itself – without any consultation of Congress at all.

    The United Nations is a sharia-compliant world body, and Obama, speaking there just days ago, insisted that “violent extremism” is not exclusive to Islam (which it is). Obama is redefining jihad terror to include everyone but the jihadists. So will the UN, driven largely by the sharia-enforcing Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the pro-Islamic post-American President Obama, use a “global police force” to crush counter-jihad forces?

    After all, with Obama knowingly aiding al-Qaeda forces in Syria, how likely is it that he will use his “global police force” against actual Islamic jihadists? I suspect that instead, this global police force will be used to impose the blasphemy laws under the sharia (Islamic law), and to silence all criticism of Islam for the President who proclaimed that “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”

  10. That was a magnificent ass-kissing job. So if I get this, she is promoting another step to socialism, creating yet another layer of bureaucracy where none is needed. A program which tells people they need to share ideas and tailor them to their particular needs in their prospective areas. WTF WAS THAT DAMN ARTICLE ABOUT?!!! Oh right, kissing the Obama administrations ass for making her the puppet in charge.

  12. The fact that Saudi Arabia leads the Human Rights council just proves how much of a joke the UN is.

  13. I read that as a whole new level of data collection and centralization. I bet NSA is getting a bigger budget.

  14. Is it any wonder that O picked this twit? She spouts the same vapid, condescending blather that O does. This is what passes for intelligence on the Left. Who needs core principles or a moral center when pedantic wordplay will fool the ignorant muggles? There’s nothing wrong with America, it’s just the idiocracy running it.

    • Oh, I don’t think the leadership are idiots, at least not most of them. They know what they’re doing.

  15. I read it as Hunger Games type Capitols, where the Elite Who Know Whats Best for the Little People, can share their secrets, and network, and rule as corruptocrats do- never mind playing by the same rules as everyone else.

    Naturally, this is a UN sponsored effort, to bring the nonsense that is Leftist Socialism, failing in Europe, failed in China, failed in Russia, together with totalitarians in Saudi Arabia, Havana, Peking, and Moscow, to tell us how to spy on our own lower classes, like they do, to “control crime”, to “facilitate public comity”, for “global sustainability” and “education standards” of politically correct nonsense.

    Obama’s administration has become worse than George Orwells nightmare in 1984, trying to legitimize what Soros and other globalists have already accomplished, to paint it as a pretty picture of moralizing their robbery, and soft fascism.

    It wont work, of course, but it will obscure just how ugly it is already, by propagandizing to lull the sheep and cattle of the low information voters, to just go back to sleep, keep chewing the government provided cud.

  16. National governments have a crucial role to play in ensuring the safety and security of the nations they serve …local leaders are often best positioned to pinpoint sources of unrest and discord; best equipped to identify signs of potential danger; and best able to recognize and accommodate community cultures, traditions, sensitivities and customs. By creating a series of partnerships that draws on the knowledge and expertise of our local officials, we can create a more effective response to this virulent threat … These efforts have shown us the power of harnessing local expertise and leveraging local leadership to create targeted and effective approaches to eradicating violent extremism in any community … we have observed the need for a mechanism that will expand the most effective efforts to reach more people around the globe – a way to highlight the best local ideas so that they can be adapted for use in other communities…. Until now, we have lacked that mechanism… through the Strong Cities Network that we have unveiled today, we are making the first systematic effort in history to bring together cities around the world to share experiences, to pool resources and to forge partnerships in order to build local cohesion and resilience on a global scale … the spirit of collaboration I see before me today … gives me confidence in our effort and hope for the journey ahead.

    Or…under the guise of working with local officials to share their ideas, it’s really an idea for a framework for more centrist control, “to reach more people around the globe.”

    This wouldn’t be the first time that the UN has been vying to dip their fingers into local government. It may sound innocuous and helpful to most, but I believe this is flirting with dangerous territory.

    • That’s about what I got out of it.
      Free trip to Paris, apparently to give speeches on Liberal Nonsense while the other participants pretend to listen.
      Good grief, someone needs to give her a word limit and enforce it.

  19. War is peace.
    Freedom is slavery.
    Ignorance is strength.
    Was this piece just released from the Ministry of Truth?
    Perhaps she should hold off and get a handle on Chicago and Baltimore first.

  20. She’s a POS (D).

    And I blame all you liberal satan’s evil blue house of (D) heads for this.

    FU

  21. Was she the Attorney General when the police RAPED the man from Central America with a toilet plunger causing him injury and putting I’m in the hospital? She wants to pinpoint “sources of unrest and discord”. I know where this areas are, everyplace where a dishonest politician has violated his oath, the people and maintained the double standard thinking they are better than the non politician American. She wants to fight “violent extremism”, Is she aware that the CIVILIAN police have MILITARY equipment to control unarmed people? She said “Through our Model Regions program”, WHAT THE HELL???Does she mean FEMA camps? She said “to strengthen trust in law enforcement” is that like saying “trust me I’m from the government? The first meeting is in Pairs, That sounds sounds like a paid vacation for the politicians to me. UNLESS they pay there OWN way. Will she defend the 2nd Amendment? Until then she is one of them. No double standards put the DC politicians on Obamacare and SS.Thanks for your support and vote.Pass the word. mrpresident2016.com

  22. We need a one world government run by enlightened leaders who have been thoroughly trained and indoctrinated so their scientific methods can be spread everywhere and to everybody.

  23. I read the whole thing. God I feel dirty.

    I’ll be in the shower with a brillo pad if anyone needs me…

  25. They will only battle “extremists” that disagree with them.

    It’s quite obvious to anyone with discernment that these things are the actual “extremists” and will reap what they sow.

  26. When these commies are talking you best brass check your pistol and keep your hand on your wallet.

  27. Holy crap, these idiots truly think they are saving the world, literally. She practically said “we’re on a mission from God” (god being the State in this case)

  28. Inner-city violence has two primary ingredients…a) social welfare policy and b) the war on drugs. Nothing will change without wholesale revision of both.

    • The only useful wholesale revision for either one is complete elimination. Have to hire more bureaucrats and have a large budget otherwise. The only result of tinkering with slavery and bureaucracy is creation of more of the same.

  29. Americans had better wake up and recognize that this and other innocently named initiatives are designed to create a nationalized police state under the auspices of the UN. This bypasses Congress, and the use of the term “extremism” gives this baby Gestapo wide range of who it targets. The Communists and that includes the democratic party label anyone who opposes their agenda extremists. Wake up you fat and lazy Americans, you have traded freedom for Communist lies,and future enslavement. It will be you that hand your grandchildren a Communist police state where they will be enslaved, because you lack the strength and bearing to fight for the freedoms you inherited from your parents. This national police and security scheme is not about your safety, its about government control over you. Hitler had the Gestapo, Kruschev had the KGB, and now Obama has his national police with blue hats.

  30. more commumnity organizing, just what hitler said was nessesary. oh and alinsky just plagerizes hitler so you can include all of saul’s followers, like barry and hillery in that group of wonderfull people.

    what about allowing the citizens to vote on this miss lynch? oh wait i forgot you are a socialist the vote is just a way to keep the citizens in control and means nothing in reality to you and your ilk.

    im a retired paratrooper and i have been on a couple un “peace keeping” operations and i will say this. the term peace keeping is a political term that is a euphomism for occupation duty nothing more. this is just that occupation by the un at the local level so that it avoids going through our federal congress.

    anyone from either side of the eisle who thinks this is a good idea is a fool and deserves to die a fools death.

  32. Are you ready for UN troops, drones, and autonomous sentries on American streets. Who determines who is an extremist? We are on a slippery slope to world government and the loss of sovereignty. From TPP to the loss of your second amendments rights, this is about control and loss of freedom. Do your research. This is not good.

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