Cops get 'sensitivity training' from Farrakhan group

A plan to pay $15,000 to a Nation of Islam leader to give "sensitivity training" to New Orleans police officers is under fire from members of the force and local religious leaders.

Chief Eddie Compass announced the plan as he sat next to controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whose fiery sermons and pronouncements have been criticized as racist and anti-Semitic.

But Compass argues the Nation of Islam's security chief, Capt. Dennis Muhammad, has successfully implemented the program in other cities, including Buffalo, reported WWL-TV in New Orleans.

Compass said he decided to take action after hearing complaints about police officers during his recent tour of the city's high-crime neighborhoods.

"The people in the community who are anti-police, who really need to hear our message, who [we] really need to build the bridges with -- members of the Nation of Islam have some type of relationship with these people," said Compass.

The New Orleans Times Picayune reported Compass initiated regular community walks through low-income housing developments in order to listen to the people's concerns, reduce tensions and allow "mutual trust" to flourish.

But the training plan, to begin later this month, has prompted complaints from officers to the Police Association of New Orleans, said the union's head, David Benelli.

"I think some of them are very angry, very vocal, my phone has been ringing off the hook," he told WWL.

Benelli emphasized, however, that the provider, not the program itself, is the target of complaints.

"Being anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, the way they're perceived to treat females within the Nation of Islam," Benelli said.

Farrakhan, who has met with dictators such as Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, has called whites "blue-eyed devils" and Jews "boodsuckers."

Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad believed whites were created by an evil black scientist.

Catholic League President William Donohue wrote a letter yesterday to the seven members of the New Orleans City Council, requesting that they intervene to stop the program.

In his letter, Donohue said he was "appalled" by the plan, comparing it to "having David Duke advise public school teachers on how to conduct Black History Month events."

"Farrakhan is anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic and anti-gay," Donohue said. "He has mocked Catholicism, ridiculed the pope and insulted Catholics everywhere with his vitriolic comments."

Dennis Muhammad argues his program has benefited officers of all races and insists its part of a business that has no connection to the Nation of Islam.

Religious leaders, nevertheless, including a rabbi and a Catholic priest, have voiced concern.

"Suppose the individual to be brought in had a wonderful track record in these very same pursuits of community engagement, but he just happened to work for the Ku Klux Klan," said Rabbi Edward Cohn of Temple Sinai. "I don't think that the people of New Orleans would be enthusiastic about welcoming that individual."

Fr. Michael Jacques of St. Peter Claver said the Nation of Islam has "spoken so negatively" about Jews and Christians that is raises the question of whether the program is "really going to be the way for us to work together as a community."

Muhammad argues he's simply "trying to create an image that will change the attitude of the people and how they relate to law enforcement."

The police association, meanwhile, has a meeting scheduled this week to discuss the issue.