CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS SUE NYPD OVER MUSLIM SPYING
New York, 10 Sya’ban 1434/19 June 2013 (MINA) – The New York Police Department’s widespread spying programs on Muslims have come under spotlights again after civil rights lawyers filed a complaint against the department.
The lawsuit has been filed by The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) jointly with the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) project of Main Street Legal Services, Inc. at The City University of New York’s School of Law. They have disputed the NYPD’s policy and practice of targeting entire Muslim communities for “discriminatory and suspicionless surveillance”. They have described the practice as “unconstitutional”.
According to Press TV report quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA), the complaint urges a federal judge to declare the Department’s practice as unconstitutional demanding the judge to order police to stop their surveillance and destroy any records in police files.
“The NYPD is routinely violating the civil rights of Muslims across New York City by operating an unconstitutional religious profiling and suspicionless surveillance program,” the federal lawsuit alleges.
It adds that “The NYPD’s vast religious profiling program has cast an unjustified badge of suspicion and stigma on hundreds of thousands of innocent New Yorkers, based on nothing more than their religious faith and practice.”
The supporters of the move rallied outside police headquarters in lower Manhattan after civil rights lawyers filed the suit.
The civil rights lawsuit reveals that the police Demographics Unit filed over 4000 reports in the last three years on Muslim community activities. According to a report by the Associated Press, the Unit monitored the details of 200 conversations recorded in clandestine visits by police and informants. At least one police informant paid by the NYPD to spy on Muslims said he used a strategy called, “create and capture”.
The lawsuit argues that the spying programs prohibit residents to freely practice their religion. It is the third significant legal action filed against the NYPD Muslim surveillance program since details of the spy program were revealed in a series of Associated Press reports in 2011 and 2012.
The Associated Press had earlier reported that it obtained documents showing that the NYPD has built databases pinpointing where Muslims live, where they buy groceries, what Internet cafes they use and where they watch sports.
Dozens of mosques and student groups have been infiltrated, and police have built detailed profiles of Moroccans, Egyptians, Albanians and other local ethnic groups. The NYPD surveillance extended outside New York City to neighboring New Jersey and Long Island and colleges across the Northeast. (T/P05/E1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
