Bloomberg defends secret surveillance of NYC Muslims

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Published time: September 08, 2011 15:24
Edited time: September 09, 2011 11:22

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has exposed a haunting Orwellian outcome for the future of New Yorkers in a recent interview where he defends alleged ethnic profiling among the NYPD.

The Associated Press has been continuing an investigating into the New York City Police Department following revelations that exposed undercover operations that spied on Muslims in the Big Apple. The AP last month unearthed information on a mysterious “Demographics Unit” inside the NYPD that, under the guidance of a CIA operative, installed clandestine cops in Muslim-majority neighborhoods to infiltrate the community and identify factors that could signal an eventual terror attack.

The NYPD originally denied the existence of any such unit, but in the days since the AP first exposed the operation they have produced documentation that served as training manuals within the Department’s Intelligence Division that points towards profiling. Now Mayor Michael Bloomberg is defending surveillance such as this and says that even more monitoring is soon to come.

"As the world gets more dangerous, people are willing to have infringements on their personal freedoms that they would not before," Bloomberg responds to the AP.

Instead of agreeing to allegations that the surveillance is spying on Muslims without specific reasoning, Bloomberg says rather that the techniques coming out of the NYPD are meant to be preventative.

“We live in a dangerous world, and we have to be very proactive in making sure that we prevent terrorism," he told reporters recently. The mayor remarked that he believes in being true to both the Constitution of the United States and the personal rights of people in America, but implied that he would go to any means to insure the safety of New Yorkers.

Bloomberg also adds that Muslims welcome the police into their community — even if more than 250 mosques have been secretly surveyed in the decade since the September 11 attacks unbeknownst to the worshippers.

"I think most Muslims want police protection. They don't want their kids … falling off the … train and going down the wrong path," Bloomberg says.

The protection, he adds, will only become more intense as his administration progresses. The mayor tells the AP that facial-recognition technology will soon allow authorities to monitor and identify anyone walking down a street, which while potentially nipping any 9/11-repeats in the bud also eliminates privacy as the people of New York know it.

Author Mordecai Dzikansky added to the AP’s initial report by confirming that he spied for the NYPD as far away from Manhattan as Israel and said it was merely a matter of “going where the problem could arise.” The author thanked God for the NYPD’s diversified squad which he said made it easy for officers of different makeup to infiltrate varying Muslim communities undetected.

“That’s our secret weapon,” saus Dzikansky.

Officers were installed in disguise outside of the jurisdiction of NYC — entering Pennsylvania, New Jersey and even abroad — to spy in mosques, coffee shops, community centers and other places of worship since September 11. Earlier this month, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne denied that his force was working in conjunction with the CIA.