|
Source
Civil-rights lawyers seek records on NYPD intel unit by Matt Apuzzo - Oct. 4, 2011 12:00 AM Associated Press WASHINGTON - Civil-rights lawyers on Monday raised the first opposition to New York Police Department efforts to spy on Muslims, an operation that politicians have been reluctant to even discuss. The lawyers asked a federal judge in Manhattan to force the NYPD to turn over records about clandestine police programs that monitored all aspects of daily life in Muslim neighborhoods. The request represents the first official action against the NYPD since the Associated Press revealed how the police intelligence programs operate. The court documents filed Monday were part of a decades-old class-action lawsuit against the NYPD for spying on war protesters and activists. Since 1985, a court order has limited how the department can monitor activities protected by the First Amendment. Police are not allowed to collect and store information about innocent people that is not related to criminal or terrorist activity. A small number of Capitol Hill and New York lawmakers have called for greater oversight and controls over the Police Department's intelligence unit. But most in politics, including President Barack Obama, have not talked about what the NYPD is doing or whether they support it. The silence shows how, a decade after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the nation still isn't sure how it wants police to prevent terrorism. Despite speeches and news releases, most politicians see only political risk in speaking for or against programs that singled out Muslims for investigations aimed at preventing another attack. The NYPD surveillance programs, as the AP's investigation revealed, used plainclothes officers to eavesdrop inside businesses. Restaurants serving Muslims were identified and photographed. Hundreds of mosques were investigated. Dozens were infiltrated. Such programs were built with help from the CIA. One of the agency's most senior clandestine operatives recently moved to the NYPD to work inside the department's intelligence ranks. |