NYPD Spied On Muslims At Yale, Sent Undercover On Whitewater Rafting Trip

(AP / Seth Wenig)

Another day, another damning revelation of the role that religion played in the NYPD's extensive surveillance of the Muslim community. The AP reports that in addition to monitoring college students at schools in the New York City area, the department monitored Muslim students at Yale and University of Pennsylvania, and even sent an undercover officer on a whitewater rafting trip where he took detailed notes on the students and their activities.

In defense of their monitoring of Muslim student associations (or "MSAs" in police parlance) NYPD spokesman Paul Brown gave the AP a list of 12 people who were arrested or convicted worldwide who were once members of MSAs. "As a result, the NYPD deemed it prudent to get a better handle on what was occurring at MSAs," Browne told the outlet via email, and noted that the surveillance was conducted from 2006-2007.

But the whitewater rafting trip occurred in April of 2008, and was sponsored by a Muslim student association. 18 students went on the trip to upstate New York, and the undercover noted, "In addition to the regularly scheduled events (Rafting), the group prayed at least four times a day, and much of the conversation was spent discussing Islam and was religious in nature." As the AP dutifully points out: "Praying five times a day is one of the core traditions of Islam." Hmm, wasn't that in a training video or something that the NYPD used?

"I see a violation of civil rights here," the chaplain of the Muslim Student Association at Syracuse says. "Nobody wants to be on the list of the FBI or the NYPD or whatever. Muslim students want to have their own lives, their own privacy and enjoy the same freedoms and opportunities that everybody else has."

NYPD Commissioner and Mayor Bloomberg have insisted that the NYPD doesn't racially profile or spy on anyone who doesn't deserve it: "We don't do it ethnically, we do it geographically," Kelly told the City Council at a hearing in October. Yet none of the reports prepared by the NYPD mention any of the students committing a crime. "It forces me to look around wherever I am now," one of the students on the rafting trip says.

Below is a copy of a secret report on MSA's conducted by the NYPD and obtained by the AP.

Nypd Msa Report

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

By Christopher Robbins in News on February 18, 2012 6:25 PM

Comments [rss]

Get A Free Iphone Now

So when will they start spying on Christians?

John Galt

They do not have to. Obama has been doing that for the past three years, and Clinton before that!

Ryan Ng

Muslims (not all, just Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups) deserve to be investigated.

Disciple_of_MrMet

I'm all in favor for stuff like this. I don't care if I'm called "paranoid". Getting as much intel on a group of people (Not just MSA's but the religion as a whole) that has members involved with terrorism is never a bad thing. Also, as an Atheist, I really have no problem with the monitoring of anybody of any radical religion, in fact they should be monitored more.

Guest

duplicate

Guest

I really have no problem with the monitoring of anybody of any radical religion, in fact they should be monitored more.

People are radical, not religions. Monitoring a threat makes good sense, but shotgun approaches are not only costly, but water down surveillance until it is mostly ineffective.

This group as a whole doesn't bother me as much as radical Christians like Bob McDowell and Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia, Rick Santorum and a number of radical Christian groups. Radical Christians operate openly in the United States funding hate groups, political candidates, and Christian dogma legislative change (look what is happening in my state of Virginia to see what harm they are doing). We as a nation have far less to worry about from Muslims than we do from Christians.

Disciple_of_MrMet

Believe me, I'm 110% in favor of monitoring the radical Christians too. They scare me just as much as Muslims, actually they may scare me more when I think that a person like Santorum has a chance to be POTUS.

JarekAF

Yah, but there's nothing to suggest that their's anything radical about the Yale Muslim Student Association.

These individuals were targeted solely because of their religion.

And, if I take you at your word, that you're genuinely concerned about religious radicals of all stripes, then you should be pissed by such revelations, because, the NYPD is wasting resources instead of pursuing the actual radicals.

I'm not going to go to monitor Columbia's Campus Crusade for Christ (or equivalent group) if I'm concerned about radical fundamentalist Christians. That'd be a waste of resources.

Jessica Jones

"nothing to suggest that their's anything radical about the Yale Muslim Student Association."

* Nothing you know of.

JarekAF

Yah, and illegally spying on minorities is probably the fastest way to "radicalize them"

You're a racist. Fuck off.

Jessica Jones

There was nothing illegal about what they did. But you are right, we better not look at them or anything, because you never know, they might suddenly turn into terrorists! Is that what you're trying to say? We should be real careful around them? You never know what might suddenly "radicalize them"? Sounds to me like you are the racist. Fuck yourself off.

JarekAF

So wait, you're saying spy on people because of their religion. And you're calling me a racist.

1. And what they did was illegal:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

That's a court order. If you violate a court order then such conduct is illegal. They cannot monitor people without suspicion.

2. We should be real careful around them? You never know what might suddenly "radicalize them"?

Let's ask one of the people who was illegally spied on.
http://www.democracynow.org/20...

"honestly, it’s even hurting NYPD’s try and attempt at fighting homegrown
terrorism, because these kind of tactics actually create more hatred
towards them and the other law-enforcement agencies and really destroys
the trust that any youth might have developed with the government..

.

Jessica Jones

You notice no charges were brought against the NYPD, right?

Exactly.

As for Jawad Rasul, fuck him.

JarekAF

As for Jawad Rasul, fuck him.

Why? He said he feels violated for having this guy on their trip and in their organization who claimed to be another student but instead was a NYPD officer who was taking notes on their activities.

You notice no charges were brought against the NYPD, right?

Not yet. The NYCLU is bringing them to court over violating the Handschu order and NJ authorities have called for an investigation.

JarekAF

1. Killing innocent minorities. Check!

2. Spying on minorities. Check!

3. Lying about knowing about that racist film shown to police cadets and that it comes out you were actually interviewed by producers and appeared in the film. Check !

4. Having a police force that will not conduct an investigation if you're killed by a motor vehicle. (Mathieu Lefevre - when the family got the case file, there were no photos of the crime scene (in which the driver fled) but they had pictures of the family protesting that the police weren't investigating. To be clear, the police spent more time investigating the family complaining about a lack of investigation, then conducting an actual investigation. The family went out and got surveillance cameras from local merchants and gave those to the police).

5. See 4. The police have given cyclists 3x as many moving violations than heavy trucks, even though, heavy trucks are the type of vehicle that kill the most people while bikes haven't killed anyone in about 7 years.

***
It starts from the top. Ray Kelly's got to go.

randomtransplant

Spy on college students outside your jurisdiction on a chaperoned trip because they are Muslim.

Spy on religious organizations because they are Muslim.

Play anti-muslim propaganda films to cadets funded by religious extremists.

Literal fascism.

TrollyMcTrollington

Could make for a '21 Jumpstreet' esque TV dramedy. Is Depp available?

stewart_nyc

B.

"Tim Osman"

"...And I'm proud to be an 'Merican..."

vaporland .

check page 2: "was a political profesor at sourthern connecticut university in New Heaven" - misspellings in the original text.

Obviously not the sharpest pencils in the drawer. Your tax dollars at waste...