Kelly Defends NYPD Spying

Following criticisms that the NYPD are violating the civil rights and civil liberties of Muslims and Muslim-Americans, NYPD Commish Ray Kelly defended the questionable secret practices of racial- and religious-profiling, as well as unwarranted domestic surveillance.

From The New York Daily News :

Kelly defends spying as essential safety strategy

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly gave an impassioned defense of the NYPD’s controversial Muslim surveillance program Saturday — declaring it essential for the city’s safety.

The tactics, which allegedly include spying on mosques, cafes and shops, have come under fire from Muslim and civil rights groups, but Kelly said the Police Department’s strategy has been “misrepresented.”

“For some, the very act of intelligence gathering seems illegitimate when applied to the crime of terrorism,” Kelly said in his most wide-ranging remarks to date on the hot-button topic.

Meanwhile, no response from New York City Council Speaker Quinn on the subject of NYPD domestic spying on minorities.

NYPD Spied On Muslim Students

Bloomberg defends NYPD Muslim spying at Yale

From The New York Daily News :

Mayor Bloomberg defended the NYPD’s spying on Muslim students at Yale on Tuesday — but only after taking an odd trip down memory lane.

The Associated Press reported Saturday in an ongoing series that an undercover detective went white-water rafting with the students upstate.

“The only white-water rafting I’ve done, I did with my daughter,” Bloomberg said. “I don’t think she had a lot of information that I was interested in.”

The NYPD spying drew harsh criticism from the university’s president, who called it “antithetical to the values of Yale ... and the United States.”

During the trip, the cops took the students’ names and noted how many times a day they prayed.

Agents also trawled Muslim student websites, the AP reported. The students had not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Bloomberg said the sites were available to everybody and “given that we’ve had a dozen people convicted ... including the Underwear Bomber ... of course we are going to look at anything that’s publicly available.”

Underwear-bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up a plane with nearly 300 people onboard on Christmas Day 2009, was sentenced to life in prison last week.

“This is a dangerous place,” Bloomberg said. “Make no mistake about it. ... The job of our law enforcement is to make sure that they prevent things.”

Bloomberg went on to say that the police department goes where there are allegations.

“That’s what you'd expect them to do. That's what you'd want them to do,” he said. “Remind yourself when you turn out the light tonight.”