Effort in 3 US cities to combat extremism off to slow start

Recent attacks — including in Paris in November, San Bernardino, California, in December and Brussels on Tuesday — make the local programs all the more critical, suggests Robert Trestan, who has been involved with the Boston pilot as regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, which fights anti-Semitism.

[...] observers say it has been underfunded and hobbled by a vague mission that has sown confusion and fueled strong opposition from civil rights and community groups that fear the programs will amount to government spying on law-abiding Muslims.

Top White House officials met in recent months with Silicon Valley tech giants in an effort to block or limit social-media distribution of extremist propaganda from the Islamic State and other groups.

The FBI recently rolled out an online classroom resource on extremism called "Don't Be a Puppet" and provided a guide to school administrators that addresses "concerning behavior" and how to intervene.

[...] researchers at UCLA, Harvard and the University of Illinois at Chicago have a total of $1 million in Department of Homeland Security money to help enhance efforts to counter extremism in Boston and Los Angeles, specifically.

Six other organizations there also recently received $300,000 in federal and private money to develop programs addressing mental health, employment and parenting issues among the Somali community and other refugee populations.