WASHINGTON (AP) — Civil rights lawyers are telling a judge that the New York Police Department's surveillance of Muslim communities violates federal guidelines established to stop the NYPD from conducting political surveillance.
The lawyers say in a court motion the NYPD has renewed such scrutiny in its post-9/11 focus on Muslims. They also filed the landmark 1985 lawsuit that ended the NYPD's political surveillance of the 1960s and '70s.
An Associated Press investigation revealed that the NYPD has been monitoring public places where Muslims eat, shop and worship, and the department has been keeping records and notes despite any evidence of unlawful or terror-related activity.
The NYPD and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg say the department's activities follow federal guidelines, and the department broke no laws.
Comments