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posted by martyb on Sunday April 08 2018, @09:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the out-in-the-open dept.

NYPD Pays $1 Million, Vows Surveillance Reforms After Settling with Muslims in New Jersey

The NYPD will pay more than $1 million in legal fees and damages, and pledge to end religious-based surveillance, as part of a settlement with New Jersey Muslims who alleged that police officers crossed the Hudson River in the years after Sept. 11 to monitor their mosques, stores and schools.

The lawsuit followed shocking revelations in the 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press series that the NYPD cast a wide net in its surveillance of Muslims -- even traveling outside New York to photograph license plates parked outside mosques and infiltrate Muslim Student Associations at colleges. The settlement mandates that the NYPD now notify New Jersey authorities, like municipal police and county prosecutors, when operating in their jurisdictions. But it can still conduct investigations across the Hudson River.

Also as part of the settlement, the NYPD confirmed that it dismantled the Demographics Unit that surveilled Muslims, and certain records from the Muslim surveillance operations will be expunged.

This is the third surveillance-related lawsuit that the NYPD has settled. Last year, as part of a settlement in New York, the NYPD barred religious-based surveillance under its so-called Handschu Guidelines and appointed a civilian monitor to oversee investigations of political activity. Its new policies regarding surveillance now extend to New Jersey. The NYPD will also allow the New Jersey plaintiffs to recommend changes to the NYPD's training policies as they pertain to religion and the First Amendment.

Also at Reuters, NYT, and Al Jazeera.


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  • (Score: 2) by archfeld on Monday April 09 2018, @01:45AM (1 child)

    by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Monday April 09 2018, @01:45AM (#664117) Journal

    Well for starters how can a group that lacks any authority get in trouble by abusing it. I am all for religious freedom and an avid supporter of immigration, it keeps this country strong and vital. I do have an issue with some communities that come to America and expect the US to conform to their standards rather than the other way around. Keep your religion, celebrate your heritage, but by you coming to American you become (insert origin/religion here) Americans, not the other way around. I agree with your assertion 98% of the Muslims in the world just want to practice their religion and live their lives quietly and in safety. They don't push their religion off on anyone any more than LDS going door to door, or on their mission to country X to 'save' the locals. The other 2% coincide with the extremists of any religion be it Islam, Fundamental Christian or Extreme Buddhism even.

    https://www.thenation.com/article/buddhist-violence-burma/ [thenation.com]

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 09 2018, @02:32AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 09 2018, @02:32AM (#664149)

    Instead of overtly demanding that the U.S. conform, the LDS set up genealogy websites and are collecting everyone's DNA so they can do the sickest things to it. I got an email from ancestry.com just the other day. Muslims need to take a look at what LDS/Mormons are doing.