The Associated Press recently ran an article about the New York City Police Department. The NYPD, it seems, has been actively spying on certain ethnic neighborhoods. With help from the CIA, various NYPD police officers have been listening carefully to neighborhood talk in order to gain any intelligence that may prevent another 9/11 attack.
Commenting on these infiltration tactics, a spokesperson for the FBI told press that the FBI would not have the legality to spy on people the way that the NYPD has been (according to the International Business Times).
The FBI’s general counsel, Valerie Caproni, told the International Business Times that spying on various citizens is risky. Caproni went on to say that when spying in this manner, “you’re running right up against core constitutional rights. You’re talking about freedom of religion.”
Yet, the NYPD gained special permission to keep a close watch on many NYC neighborhoods by appealing to a New York court based on specific New York laws. After the court granted the NYPD permission to spread out into various ethnic NYC neighborhoods, police offers were dispatched.
NYPD officials carefully chose the officers who were to report on any suspicious behavior. Any neighborhood talk of radical politics or religion was directly reported to NYPD officials. The NYPD denies that it sent officers to lurk in certain neighborhoods. Instead, the NYPD has stated that various officers were sent to neighborhoods based upon specific leads.
Still, the department is not apologizing for any discomfort that this type of spying might have caused.
One NYPD spokesperson told press that “the New York Police Department is doing everything it can to make sure there’s not another 9/11 here and that more innocent New Yorkers are not killed by terrorists.” To that statement, the spokesperson added “…we have nothing to apologize for in that regard.”
Needless to say, these recent reports may leave some NYC residents feeling nervous. On the flip side, New York City did lose 3,000 people during the 9/11 attacks. Do you think that the NYPD is justified in its actions?
Article Written by Harriette Halepis
