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After Lawsuit, Police Agree to Greater Oversight  on Surveillance of Muslims in NYC

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This past October, a federal judge rejected a settlement made by city officials in an anti-discrimination lawsuit brought forth by members of the city’s Muslim community. Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. cited in his opinion that the NYPD had a “systemic inclination to ignore rules protecting free speech and religion,” according to the New York Times.

In response to accusations made against the City’s current anti-terrorism policy, Mayor Bill De Blasio had appointed a civilian lawyer to monitor existing programs. Judge Haight said that the initiative was not enough, stating that the NYPD was infringing upon the rights of New York City’s Muslims through its myriad profiling activities.

Haight wrote that, “The proposed role and powers of the civilian representative do not furnish sufficient protection from potential violations of the constitutional rights of those law-abiding Muslims and believers in Islam who live, move and have their being in this city.”

Last Monday, the city returned to court to renew its settlement proposal.

This time, a civilian monitor would, in fact, be appointed to oversee any new counterterrorism activities proposed by the NYPD, which would make the airtight surveillance on Muslim communities laxer than it has been in the past decade.

In the wake of 9/11, the same judge rendered an opinion in favor of former Police Commissioner Ray Kelley’s proposal that the city abandoned such safeguards and the strict oversight of its counter-terrorism activities. The city then implemented multiple programs that had plain clothed NYPD officers surveying mosques, restaurants and any place that had a dense congregation of New York City Muslims. The goal was to fight terror from within by asking Muslims about their opinions on radical ideologies and rooting out the bad apples wherever they were situated.

The latest initiative to restore the pre 9/11 status quo is perhaps a sign that the tide is changing and that the city is renegotiating its ties with the Muslim community and offering a counterpunch to Trump’s stance on Muslims.

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump was a big proponent of the so-called “Demographics program”, which for over a decade had New York City officers frequent many popular hang-out spots for New York City Muslims in order to detect signs of radicalism. Some Republicans have even suggested that the President create a similar program that would operate on a federal level. In the meantime, the New York City’s Demographics program has already been disbanded.

The current lawsuit in question harkens back to 1971 and cites the Handschu guidelines, which were designed to protect the first amendment rights of segregated or profiled minority populations, in this case, Muslims.

The Judge will once again rule on whether or not the new settlement fulfills the existing guidelines and is constitutional. Should his decision be against the City, further amendments will have to be instated

By: Kristina Stukalenko

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