Mayor Cory Booker is calling for state authorities to investigate a widespread spying operation conducted in Newark’s Muslim neighborhood by the New York Police Department. It has been a trying month for the NYPD already, as Reverend Al Sharpton was the subject of their spy tactics, they’ve been accused of allegedly mistreating New York’s transgendered community, and an unarmed Bronx youth was shot and killed. Governor Chris Christie, once New Jersey’s top federal law enforcement official, has joined in calling the supposed surveillance “disturbing” and has placed Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa with the task of looking into the reports.
The findings stem from a mid-2007 report from the NYPD’s secretive Demographics Unit, which fanned out across Newark, photographed every mosque, and eavesdropped around Muslim businesses. A 60-page report was obtained by The Associated Press and read as a police guidebook to Newark’s Muslims. No mention of terrorism or any criminal wrongdoing was found in the report, but this is no doubt an invasion of privacy.
With Booker and Newark’s current and former police directors belaboring that they were misled by the NYPD, are we ready for a civil suit to be brought upon New York’s “finest?" Or will there be an amicable solution to this shady situation?
