Peter King Wants To Protect Terror Tipsters From Lawsuits

Lance Orton, one of the Times Square vendor tipsters.

Rep. Peter King wants to protect tipsters who report suspicious activity from lawsuits against those who feel they were wrongly ratted out. The Republican congressman and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee believes that the liability protection for citizens who come to the authorities with information should be expanded beyond "passenger transportation." The men who reported the Times Square bombing plot were vendors on the street, and wouldn't be protected under the current law. King is pushing for the protection in light of a lawsuit brought by six Muslim imams against their accusers and the airline, who were wrongfully ejected off of a flight. They later dropped their suit against the passenger who reported them and settled out of court.

Manhattan U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler finds serious fault with King's proposal, saying, "The rhetoric can be prettied up…but the message is the same: that law enforcement and the public need to target Muslims in order to keep us safe." King faced charges of racism after holding McCarthy-esque hearings on "Muslim radicalization" this spring. A rep from the Muslim Public Affairs Council tells the Daily News that King's bill needs to be "more explicit" to prevent tipsters from reporting tips based on pure bias. Currently the law prevents protected free speech, like in the case of an Iraqi man who was forced to change his shirt with Arabic on it, from being used in terror databases.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Christopher Robbins in News on July 17, 2011 3:00 PM

Comments [rss]

ANGRYGOD11

Thou shall not bear false witness or get thy butt to jail.

theheights

"Muslim lettering"? Come on Gothamist, you should know better than that.

Christopher_Robbins

you're right. too much FOX News. Thank you.

Peter Rosa

Peter King is a paranoid schizophrenic.

Sulayman

Dont forget IRA-supporter. Guess he's selective of which terrorists America must help.

whiteiris

Go King, screw race baiter Nadler. We need more like that hero vendor to come forward without these blow hard liberals and CAIR screaming racism all the time.

Politburo

But that's just it, no one screamed racism at the vendor. King is using the vendor as a prop.

TimeDown

Yeah, screw the constitution and probable cause. That old document is only for liberals. Let's support the initiative of a guy who supports a white terrorist group, the IRA. His anti-terrorism claims are so believable.

Dead Himmler

I agree with this law. If some Muslims are making me uncomfortable I need to have the right to call the police and have them incarcerated without opening myself up to any legal liabilities. People need to be more afraid and realize that these people are everywhere now.

Barbara Starkweather

"If some Muslims are making me uncomfortable I need to have the right to call the police and have them incarcerated..".

I'm assuming this is sarcasm. If not, DeadHimmler may as well change his name to LiveHimmler !!

Currently, only transportation employees are protected from lawsuits like this, under the "Protecting Americans Fighting Terrorism Act of 2007". Kings law would extend that protection to others.

I'm inclined to agree that if this becomes law, it must be written very specifically to exclude protection from civil suits when people call the police out of pure bias or vindictiveness. If you call the police for those reasons, you deserve to be sued, and you deserve to pay damages.

mistermarkdavis

"People need to be more afraid"

I think it's a joke. If not he is.

Sulayman

We already have that, it's called "If you see something, say something." You are not legally liable for good-faith reporting.

However, if someone's ex-girlfriend calls the police and tries to file a false terrorism tip so he can get arrested for no reason, that is and should stay illegal.

Believe it or not, there are people who call 911 because they see a Muslim in public. It actually happened to me and was humiliating to have a cop show up and question me to why I'd take a public train to school.