Photo By Staff Sgt. Michael Pryor | New Iraqi security volunteers from the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Sha'ab swear an...... read more read more
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Sgt. Mike Pryor
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs
BAGHDAD – Inside a stuffy conference room in a makeshift recruiting station, a dozen men from eastern Baghdad's Sha'ab neighborhood stood with their right hands raised. The men were all different sizes and shapes, some in their teens, some with grey hair, some in oxford shirts and dress shoes, others in sports jerseys and flip-flops.
In front of each man was a piece of paper with a statement of loyalty to the Iraqi government printed on it. Haltingly at first and then louder as their voices joined together, the men recited the words on the paper, pledging to serve the government and obey the law.
With that, the men officially went from being average citizens to protectors of their community.
Over the last week, almost 600 men have applied to join Sha'ab's new volunteer security force, a government-authorized, U.S.-funded community police force which will guard important local infrastructure sites like offices, schools and markets. The total force will eventually number more than 1,200 people.
"These guys are going to work in partnership with the Iraqi police and the Iraqi national police to secure their own neighborhoods and streets and markets," said Hinckley, Ohio, native Capt. Dennis Marshall, commander of Headquarters Company, 2nd "White Falcons" Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. The White Falcons have backed the creation of the new force with funding and assistance screening applicants.
While Sha'ab's volunteer security force program comes in the wake of several other well-publicized community police programs in other parts of Baghdad, Marshall said it was not a case of jumping on the bandwagon.
"This is something the sheiks have been asking for since I first got here," he said. "It's about local solutions to local problems."
The allure of the program is that it gives area residents a greater role in securing their own neighborhood, while also providing much-needed jobs, said Hamood Hassem, a political figure known as the mayor of Adhamiyah, and one of the key organizers of the program.
"We want to give people a chance to work and we want to protect our area," Hassem said.
Hassem played a central role in creating the program, working with local sheiks, elders, Imams (Muslim clerics), and community leaders to build support for the idea and select the members of the new force.
Each applicant had to be "sponsored," or vouched for, by a local leader, which ensured that militia members, criminals and terrorists were kept out, Hassem said.
The depth of support the program has generated was evident during a screening for recruits that took place at Hassem's office in Sha'ab, on Sept. 27. By 9 a.m., hundreds of men had gathered out in the street for the chance to join.
Hassem strode up and down, a gaggle of sheiks and officials around him, haggling and bartering about which men to let in. Inside the building, paratroopers had a series of stations set up, where the applicants filled out paperwork, had fingerprints and retina scans taken, and received medical inspections. The last step in the process was to swear the oath of loyalty.
As the day wore on, the crowd still left outside started trying to push their way in. Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Taylor, outside working crowd control, told a group of men who were surging on the building to step back. Only one of them, a teenager with floppy, too-big shoes and a mop of hair, obeyed promptly. When the crowd was under control, Taylor plucked the good-listener out and escorted him inside, and then made sure he was seen quickly at every one of the stations.
"He was doing the right thing. You take care of people who play by the rules. That's what this is all about," Taylor said.
| Date Taken: | 10.04.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 10.04.2007 11:49 |
| Story ID: | 12706 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 373 |
| Downloads: | 363 |
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