For years the NYPD’s record of spying on law-abiding Muslims has been the subject of fierce public debate. Yet the NYPD is still refusing to acknowledge the existence of basic information related to its controversial and well-documented surveillance program.
Yesterday in an ornate courtroom next to Madison Square Park, the First Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court considered two cases in which the NYPD had responded to public records requests by stating it could not “confirm or deny the existence of such documents.”
In both cases, one brought by a Rutgers University student and the other by a well-known Harlem imam, the Muslim appellants had reason to believe they had been subject to NYPD spying or surveillance. Both men requested records on themselves as well as organizations in which they have been involved, including the Rutgers University Muslim Student Association and the Mosque of the Islamic Brotherhood. Continue…
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