NYPD Muslim Spying Lawsuit Reinstated: Targeting Islam Is Like Going After

Claims that accuse New York City police of profiling Muslims for surveillance are “valid”, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit announced Tuesday, acknowledging that complaints by New Jersey Muslims have legitimacy in the court of law.

A U.S. District Court dismissed the lawsuit in February 2014, claiming that the likely motive of surveillance was to find terrorists hiding among law-abiding Muslims and that harm would have been caused not by the police but by The Associated Press, for exposing the surveillance.

The Police Department, in a program created after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, sent plainclothes detectives into Muslim neighborhoods in New York City and elsewhere, tracked the activities of Muslims and built files on individuals, all in the interest of obtaining early warnings about terrorism plots. “Jewish-Americans during the Red Scare, African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement, and Japanese-Americans during World War II are examples that readily spring to mind”, Ambro wrote.

A spokesperson for the City Law Department says it was reviewing the decision and declined to comment further.

Their lawyer, Baher Azmy, said Tuesday’s ruling affirmed that police can not use religion and courts can not accept untested national security claims as justification for spying.

In a related lawsuit in Brooklyn, New York has reached a tentative settlement with a group of Muslims, but the parties have asked the court to postpone approval until next month while they iron out final details. Even when we narrow the many to a class or group, that narrowing-here to those affiliated with a major worldwide religion-is not near enough under our Constitution.

In Tuesday’s decision, the appellate court wrote: “What occurs here in one guise is not new”.

“We have been down similar roads before,” he declared, quoting arguments used to argue against the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. “Muslim-Americans were the innocent community in this matter, and lo and behold their civil rights should be protected like everyone else”. Katon said the ruling establishes “in no uncertain terms” that a national crisis can not be held up as an excuse to discriminate against a minority group. The monitoring has included video surveillance of mosques, photographing license plates, community mapping, and infiltration by undercover officers and informants of places of worship, student associations, and businesses. Intelligence reports cited in the suit include mentions of a local business’ intention to close for Friday prayers and a regular meeting by members of a New Jersey mosque at Dunkin’ Donuts. “I am so pleased the court recognized our claim that the NYPD is violating our basic rights as Americans and were wrong to do so”.

As the Two-Way reported, the NYPD announced a year ago that it was disbanding the special unit, known as the Demographics Unit, that was formed in 2003 and carried out surveillance of Muslim groups.

He asserted no one should be spied on and treated like a suspect simply due to their faith.