Maine: Muslim youth who burned down 4 apartment buildings may walk free Posted on January 5, 2015 by creeping Alternatively titled, ‘Knowing Your Muslim Neighbors‘ via Arson suspect assessed as ‘moderate risk’ to community | Sun Journal. h/t RRW LEWISTON — Abdi Ibrahim is capable of “criminal thinking” and is considered a moderate risk to “act out” using fire if released from the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland. Ibrahim, who is facing four felony counts of arson in connection with fires that burned four apartment buildings and a garage on Bartlett and Pierce streets in Lewiston on May 3, 2013, is considered a higher behavioral and social risk to the community because of a history of poor social skills and chronic behavior problems in multiple settings, including assaulting others and running away. And even though he has hidden cigarette lighters in his bedroom and twice been found smoking since he was placed in state custody, a state forensic examination found no specific indication he has “any fascination with fire as a means of acting out.” Ibrahim will appear in 8th District Court on the morning of Jan. 12 to argue that his arson confession to police be suppressed because an interpreter did not translate his Miranda warning correctly. Ibrahim was born in Africa and spent his early years living in a refugee center in Kenya before his family emigrated to the United States. They first settled in Baltimore, Md., moving to Lewiston when Ibrahim was 6 or 7 years old. The law requires a minor to have parental consent or have a parent present during a police interview, but according to Ibrahim’s attorney, Jeffrey Dolley, Ibrahim’s mother, Marian Ibrahim — who is Somali and not fluent in English — did not have an adequate understanding of the procedure for that interview because the Miranda warning wasn’t translated to her or her son correctly. As a result, her consent was never “given.” According to court records, Ibrahim was interviewed at the Lewiston Police Department, where he waived his Miranda rights, including his right to remain silent, while his mother was assisted by an interpreter over the phone. Ibrahim, who is now 14 years old, was 12 at the time of his taped confession. According to court records, Dolley learned the Miranda warning was incorrectly translated after he had a language expert listen to the audio recording of the police interview. During that interview, after initially denying he was involved, Ibrahim confessed to setting a fire at the back of a three-bay garage behind an apartment building at 149 Bartlett St. by lighting a cigarette and paper with a lighter, using gasoline as an accelerant. The teen was initially found not competent to stand trial and the case was suspended while he received emotional and behavioral counseling in residential care at Sweetser Children Services in Saco. In August, the court found him competent to stand trial, and he was transferred to Long Creek Youth Development Center. At the same time and in preparation for trial, the court ordered the state’s Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a risk assessment of Ibrahim’s behavior, including his likelihood to start fires. According to that risk assessment, which was conducted in September, Ibrahim exhibits some high-risk behaviors in certain categories but does not demonstrate a significant risk to set fires. Overall, his risk to the community is considered “moderate.” According to the risk assessment, which is part of the court record, Ibrahim is the third of nine children of Yussuf Ali and Marian Ibrahim. After his family moved to Lewiston, the boy was diagnosed with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and prescribed Focalin, a stimulant to treat ADHD, about three years before the fires. When he was charged, Ibrahim was an eighth-grade student at Lewiston Middle School but spent most of his time in special education classes at the Renaissance School in Auburn. Although his family attended some counseling sessions, they disagreed with Sweetser staff about the level of supervision the teen required, with both parents telling counselors they found the recommended supervision level to be “unrealistic.” When counselors went to the family’s home when Ibrahim was released on home visits, they documented a “disturbing level of violence among the siblings in the home,” and the number of home visits were curtailed because “of safety concerns of him being in the community,” according to court records. According to counselors, when the home visits were allowed after months of residential therapy, Ibrahim exhibited heightened levels of verbal and physical aggression, posturing, threatening, using fire-starting devices, lying and smoking cigarettes. He expressed a desire to “break rules and commit crimes because no one was holding him accountable when he did these acts. He stated he felt above the law and that thought scared him,” according to court records. And he told counselors at Sweetser that “he would continue to push limits and see what he could get away with until he received ‘a wake-up call.’” Ibrahim told his counselors that even though he was afraid of going to Long Creek, he thought that “would be a wake-up call for him.” In addition to the arson charges, Ibrahim is facing motions to revoke his probation as well as charges of criminal threatening and theft. Court proceedings related to those charges will be held separately from and after the arson charges. The family has been in the U.S. for at least seven years now, they don’t speak English and have become not only a burden on society but a danger to society. It’s time to deport them all. And end the massive and fraudulent “refugee resettlement” industry that is putting Americans at risk.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 23:26:40 +0000
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