NYPD monitoring of Muslims enters mayoral race

New York City Police Com­mis­sioner Ray Kelly speaks at a news con­fer­ence in Decem­ber with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, in Brook­lyn, N.Y. New York Police Depart­ment spy­ing oper­a­tions began after the 2001 ter­ror attacks with unusual help from a CIA offi­cer. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams, File)

VERENA DOBNIK

Asso­ci­ated Press

NEW YORK — Poten­tial can­di­dates for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office are tak­ing stands on the New York Police Department’s sur­veil­lance of Mus­lim stu­dents, rang­ing from cau­tious sup­port to a warn­ing about cur­tail­ing civil liberties.

Bloomberg, who leaves office after the 2013 elec­tion, has said that he finds “wor­ri­some” the idea that his suc­ces­sor might aban­don NYPD poli­cies that have kept New York­ers safe.

The NYPD used under­cover offi­cers and infor­mants to infil­trate Mus­lim stu­dent groups at a dozen col­leges in New York City, upstate New York, Con­necti­cut, New Jer­sey and Penn­syl­va­nia, doc­u­ments obtained by The Asso­ci­ated Press show. The mon­i­tor­ing was part of the department’s anti-terrorism efforts.

But Man­hat­tan Bor­ough Pres­i­dent Scott Stringer said in a state­ment to the AP over the week­end that “it is trou­bling when peo­ple are sub­ject to sur­veil­lance and inves­ti­ga­tion sim­ply because they are mem­bers of a par­tic­u­lar group.”

How­ever, the Demo­c­rat, a declared can­di­date for mayor, praised the city’s police depart­ment for doing an “extra­or­di­nary job pro­tect­ing our city,” as long as author­i­ties make sure anti-terrorism efforts “do not tram­ple on the civil lib­er­ties that all cit­i­zens have a right to enjoy.”

Police Com­mis­sioner Ray­mond Kelly said Fri­day that his depart­ment is “con­tin­u­ing to do what we believe nec­es­sary to pro­tect the city, pur­suant to the law.” He did not elaborate.

NYC Comp­trol­ler John C. Liu, who is expected to run for mayor, praised “the ded­i­cated men and women of the NYPD” for doing “an extra­or­di­nary job of keep­ing New York­ers safe.” But in a state­ment, he also warned that “we should not as a mat­ter of pol­icy pro­file peo­ple based on reli­gion or race — it goes against every­thing this city stands for.”

Liu, a Queens Demo­c­rat, faces a fed­eral inves­ti­ga­tion into his fundrais­ing oper­a­tion after reports of incon­sis­ten­cies in his cam­paign finances.

When asked about the NYPD sur­veil­lance, media exec­u­tive Tom Allon didn’t hedge.

“I sup­port the tac­tics that they’ve used,” said Allon, who plans to run as both a Lib­eral and a Demo­c­rat. “I think we’ve got a much larger prob­lem here, which is mak­ing sure there’s no ter­ror­ist attack on New York.”

Three other pos­si­ble can­di­dates, City Coun­cil Speaker Chris­tine Quinn, Pub­lic Advo­cate Bill de Bla­sio and for­mer comp­trol­ler Bill Thomp­son, did not imme­di­ately respond to requests for comment.

Posted by AP News on Feb 26 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.