Spying on New York Muslims Yields No Leads

August 22, 2012

A senior New York Police Department official says that spying on the city’s Muslim community has not yielded a single criminal lead. Some Muslim targets of surveillance feel vindicated.

Surveillance of the Muslim community by the NYPD’s secret Demographics Unit for at least the past six years has not yielded a single lead or launched any terror investigation. That statement, part of a decades-old civil rights case, came in a recent deposition by Assistant Chief and commanding officer of the NYPD Intelligence Division, Thomas Galati.

Muslim groups have long demanded the resignation of New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly over the surveillance issue. But he enjoys the support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and has defended surveillance as necessary to defend the city against terrorism. “We see ourselves as very conscious and aware of civil liberties and we know that there's always going to be...there's always going to be tension between the police department and so-called civil liberties groups," he said.

Palestinian immigrant Mousa Ahmad says he had to close a coffee shop that he owned because police surveillance frightened away his customers. He still owns a barber shop next door.

“Maybe five outside, ten police inside, you know. I told him 'what happened?' He's told me like just 'this is routine.' I said 'routine for what? This is a barbershop.' He go to the basement, he checked every single bag, every single drawer," he said.