Arab-Americans File Claims Against Police

Several Arab-American groups filed damage claims Thursday against police and sheriff’s agencies in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego in connection with allegations that confidential police information was provided to the Anti-Defamation League.

The claims are legally required before the groups--including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the National Assn. of Arab Americans--can file suit against the public agencies for their alleged relations with the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group.

Each group is asking a minimum of $100,000 from each police agency.

Only one person has so far been charged in a lengthy investigation by the San Francisco district attorney’s office into the alleged improper passage of information. He is a former San Francisco police officer, Tom Gerard, who is accused of giving police intelligence files to Roy Bullock, a longtime investigator for the Anti-Defamation League.

Officials of the Anti-Defamation League maintain that their organization has done nothing wrong.

Abdeen Jabara, a spokesman for the groups filing the damage claims, said Thursday that hundreds of Arab-Americans have received notice in recent weeks that their names have shown up in files that reached Bullock, and they are alarmed by what they say is a violation of their constitutional rights.

The Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have said they are cooperating with the inquiry by San Francisco authorities, but have not acknowledged any wrongdoing.