Policing Against Terror: Why Every U.S. Police Officer Needs Counterterrorism Training Now
As violent ideology takes root in U.S. cities, organized Islamic terror is no longer a foreign threat—it’s targeting American streets, and our law enforcement must be prepared to confront it.
We need to recognize that every law enforcement officer in the United States needs supplemental terrorism training, both to understand the ideologies and the considerations for the response to an act of terror. The attack in Boulder, Colorado on June 1, 2025, is still under investigation, and I don’t have a resource of insider information to share with you, but for myself and some others, it rises as a bellwether moment. It builds upon the many demonstrations over the past approximately 600 days since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Hamas attack on Israel was marked by brutal atrocities, acts of such depravity that offend the conscience even beyond the brutal murders and kidnappings that took place. Israeli victims are still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip. In World War Two Germany, there are many stories of Germans risking their own families by aiding Jews in being hidden or smuggled to safety. There is not a single story so far of a Palestinian aiding in the rescue of a single Jew.
It is time to take a side, and I am ready: I take the side of all the American Peace Officers facing organized Islamic terror.
The Protestors
For the past year and a half, I have criticized NYPD (New York City Police Department) leadership for letting their officers get run over, hit, and harassed by idiots who didn’t even know what they were protesting about. Even the spokespeople for the groups are barely articulate on the cause they are supposedly fighting for. It’s not like one or two people: in 2024 in a video (link in references) I use in one of my presentations, the reporter literally cannot find anyone in the crowd either to talk to him or to competently explain what exactly they are protesting or why. Islam has created an atheist and ignorant zombie army, and their ranks are held in causes by many names. The groups named -
1. If Not Now, 2. Within Our Lifetime, 3. Jewish Voice for Peace, 4. Palestine Action, 5. Party for Socialism and Liberation, 6. Palestinian Youth Movement, 7. National Students for Palestine, and the meme that wrote itself, 8. Queers for Palestine,
- have followed the revival of the Saul Alinsky Rules for Radicals playbook reestablished following Arab Spring in the form of the Occupy movements. Likely you have noted that many of these organizations and their slogans seem innocuous such as ‘From the River to the Sea.’ One of the organizations, formerly known as Palestine Action USA is now known as Unity of Fields. Tal Fortgang wrote in the Winter issue of City Journal:
“Unity of Fields,” …the new name comes from a Palestinian Islamic Jihad call for violence across the world—included a lengthy caption in the post, exhorting followers: “These actions are not hard to do. Please escalate for Palestine and humanity. We will not rest until Palestine is liberated from the river to the sea.”
The World Trade Center Bombing
On February 26, 1993, the World Trade Center was attacked by Islamic terrorists. Six people died and over a thousand were injured. The normal weekday population of the twin towers was about 60,000 in their offices every day. Razmi Ahamed Yousef, an assumed name that he was convicted under, was a Pakistani born in Kuwait. His real name is believed to be Abdul Basit Mahmoud Abdul Karim. His goal was for the north tower to collapse into the south tower and bring them both down to rubble with more than 50,000 casualties. After the attack, he penned a letter to the New York Times:
“We are, the fifth battalion in the Liberation Army, declare our responsibility for the explosion on the mentioned building. This action was done in response for the American political, economical, and military support to Israel, the state of terrorism, and to the rest of the dictator countries in the region.” Yousef had three demands and the first two were to end aid and financial support to Israel and break off all US diplomatic relations with Israel.
Prior to being arrested and extradited to the United States in 1995, he bombed Philippine Airlines 434 on December 11,1994. He assembled the bomb in the lavatory of the Boeing 747 aircraft and then changed seats from row 26 to another area on the plane. The bomb exploded killing a passenger and injuring others. The explosive did not damage the plane which was able to land safely. Yousef was traveling on a counterfeit Italian passport. He also attempted to assassinate the Prime Minster of Pakistan in February 1993 following the World Trade Center bombing. His goals including killing Pope John Paul II and simultaneously bombing eleven passenger jets. He is serving life sentences in a Colorado supermax prison.
Terror in our time
I just finished field training when the federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed. Copycat bomb threats were made against our federal building which happened to be in the next block to our police headquarters. Everything they failed to teach me about traffic direction I learned from our motor officers during daily shutdowns of major downtown streets. Several years later, an Islamic terrorist committed a massacre at a nightclub and my colleagues, and I worked double shifts at our emergency operations center for nearly three weeks with no days off.
The attack on our nation in 2001, the Pentagon, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the World Trade Center towers– a nationwide air travel shutdown impacted all of us, especially those in public safety. There was an immediate loss of life in the high 2,900s, just about 500 more than Pearl Harbor, was hard to describe as anything less than an immeasurable tragedy until you consider that it was only 20% of the Islamic terrorists’ desired death toll. The Airport Division Commander gave every officer a patrol rifle to carry. I was sent home from CID to gear up, and when I got back in 20 minutes I could barely get back in as everything had escalated three notches in severity in half an hour. My friend flying back from Seattle was forced to land in Denver, then rent a car from Colorado to Florida. My aunt who lived in Brooklyn was forced to stay in Jersey City with the bridges and tunnels closed. A carrier strike group set up off New York Harbor with an effective battle radius of hundreds of miles.
More American firefighters and police officers died on that day than any other single day ever.
Events this year
As we process this information, we do so in the context of what has happened this year. On January 1, 2025, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, deliberately drove a rented battery electric pickup truck into the New Year’s celebration crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans killing 14 and injuring 57 others including two police officers shot.
Just less than two weeks ago in another act of terror,
“Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, were identified by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar as the victims during a press conference on Thursday morning. According to the criminal complaint, both victims suffered from gunshot wounds, with police finding 21 expended 9 mm cartridge casings at the scene. …shooting the victims in the back and then firing again at the woman as she tried to crawl away.”
They were both Israeli Embassy diplomatic staff, and a romantic couple exiting an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Lischinsky is an ethnic Israeli but a practicing Christian as he was born to a family that shares both faiths.
This article by CNN has this insightful quote from people who personally encountered the murderer:
Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said. Kalin said people came to the man’s aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, “Free Palestine,’” Kalin said. (Emphasis mine)
“This event was about humanitarian aid,” Kalin said. “How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.”
Boulder, Colorado – June 1, 2025
We have spent too much time letting these Islamic organizations gain a foothold. Their idea, their gateway drug is proposing civil disobedience but then migrating into organized acts of criminal mischief such as putting epoxy in the locks of bank doors and ATMs. Their foolish non-Islamic participants, many $75K tuition recipients, blinded by ignorance, block everyone from accessing bridges and tunnels as the police have to stand by per command orders while rescue vehicles can’t reach their destinations.
USA Today reports : “The man accused of setting twelve people aflame at a pro-Israel protest here has been charged with a federal hate crime after telling investigators he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished all of them were dead, according to an FBI affidavit released Monday.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, is accused of attacking the weekly "Run for Their Lives" demonstration on Sunday with a makeshift flamethrower and fire bombs while shouting "Free Palestine." The victims, ages 52 to 88, suffered injuries ranging from serious to minor.”
Everyday terrorism is here today, and we need the means for every officer to address it. Knowing that there is a guy in Intel tracking threats is not enough anymore. Policing is the force that preserves liberty and freedom. Our response to terrorism needs to reach a level beyond initial disaster response and an awareness of likely secondary traps. Basic training must include all the indicators and motivations for terrorist acts. I didn’t expect terror attacks in New Orleans, Louisiana and Boulder, Colorado. Today, we need a better plan than keeping our head on a swivel. We need the understanding to anticipate that a group praying for Israeli hostages being held and tortured in Gaza will make a great target for an Islamic terrorist.
Please keep every American Peace Officer in your prayers.
Roland Clee served a major Florida police department as a Community Service Officer for more than 26 years. His career included uniformed patrol, training, media relations, intelligence, criminal investigations, and chief’s staff. He writes the American Peace Officer newsletter, speaks at public safety, recruiting and leadership conferences and helps local governments and public safety agencies through his business, CommandStaffConsulting.com.
References
https://www.city-journal.org/article/terror-attack-boulder-colorado-mohamed-soliman
https://abcnews.go.com/US/2-shot-fbi-field-office-washington-dc/story?id=122059162
https://apnews.com/article/israel-embassy-jewish-museum-shooting-9e77d16a88d634b0dde5b2455c96dddf
Both of you were spot on! And I can tell you that the sentiment from the front lines is not one of defeated antagonism. The officers in our country have been ready for a long time to step up once they knew they could get supported. For the enemies of law-enforcement and society… Run. Fear the consequences of your actions. Because now the sleeping giant has awoken!
Always insightful, always on point!