Federal Court: NYPD Muslim Surveillance Program Violates Civil Rights


Susanne.Posel-Headline.News.Official- muslims.nypd.surveillance.lawsuit.civil.rights.constitution.violation.racism_occupycorporatismSusanne Posel ,Chief Editor Occupy Corporatism | Co-Founder, Legacy Bio-Naturals
October 13, 2015

 

The 3rd US District Court of Appeals (DCA) has reinstated a complaint stating that the surveillance of Muslims in Jersey by the New York Police Department (NYPD) following the 9/11 attacks.

An appeals judge stated a pervious decision to dismiss the case because the plaintiffs “raised sufficient allegations of religious – freedom and equal – protection laws” based on the undue scrutiny the NYPD enacted on them because of their religious ethnicity.

This treatment of Muslims “evokes memories of Japanese internment camps and spying on protesters during the Civil Rights Movement.”

It was ruled the NYPD was not justified in their surveillance “on Muslim terrorist activities without monitoring the Muslim community itself”. The judge also pointed out that the NYPD’s attack of the Associated Press for exposing their operations was unwarranted because no harm had come to the program due to the reports in the media.

In his opinion, the judge wrote that the blame campaign was liken to claiming: “What you don’t know can’t hurt you. And, if you do know, don’t shoot us. Shoot the messenger.”

Because of the surveillance programs, the NYPD “infiltrated Muslim student groups, put informants in Mosques and otherwise spied on Muslims as part of a broad effort to prevent terrorist attacks.”

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former police Commissioner Raymond Kelly (along with other officials) defended the NYPD’s program, saying that the surveillance helped the nation’s largest police department identify and thwart terror plots.

However if that were true, it is curious that William Bratton, the current police commissioner, closed down the operation in 2014 and reassigned officers to other departments after an internal review found that the information collected was no better than what could have been discovered by simply speaking with people in the Muslim community.

Lawrence Byrne, deputy commissioner of legal matters for the NYPD, responded : “The ruling did not address the merits of the case. We will defend against it vigorously. There’s been no finding by the court that the NYPD did anything wrong or anything illegal.”

Two years ago, the NYPD was sued in federal court by Muslim leaders who say that surveillance operations conducted on their congregations are in violation of their civil rights.

Hassan Raza, plaintiff in the complaint said: “Our mosque should be an open, religious and spiritual sanctuary, but NYPD spying has turned it into a place of suspicion and censorship.”

As a result of the surveillance operations, Muslim leaders have curbed their sermons as to not draw attention from the Big Brother data collection being purveyed on them.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed the lawsuit for the Muslim leaders.

According to the complaint: “Through the Muslim surveillance program, the NYPD has imposed an unwarranted badge of suspicion and stigma on law-abiding Muslim New Yorkers, including plaintiffs in this action.”





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