New York police go too far spying on innocent Muslims

NEW YORK: According to media reports, the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union are calling on NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg to investigate religious and racial profiling by the New York Police Department.

Media reported that NYPD spied on mosques and Muslim college students far outside New York City, without evidence or allegations of criminal activity. The NYPD surveilled mosques and businesses in Muslim and ethnic communities in Newark and on Long Island and monitored college students in Pennsylvania and Connecticut according to documents release by a leading news agency.

"These documents show that the NYPD has run amok, engaging in secret multi-state domestic surveillance of innocent people based on crude religious and racial profiling," said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project.

The documents show that the NYPD monitored and created maps of communities with high concentrations of Muslim populations, including African-Americans and people of South Asian and Arab origin. It also created dossiers of mosques and businesses located in those communities.

On the other hand New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Police Department officials remained unapologetic in the wake of report.

“We have an obligation … to protect the very things that let colleges survive,” Bloomberg said. “We have to keep this country safe.