New York Drops Unit That Spied on Muslims
Matt Apuzzo and Joseph Goldstein of The New York Times report, “The New York Police Department has abandoned a secretive program that dispatched plainclothes detectives into Muslim neighborhoods to eavesdrop on conversations and built detailed files on where people ate, prayed and shopped.” The department’s decision signals a possible end to some of the post-9/11 intelligence-gathering practices that critics said harmed national security by sowing mistrust of law enforcement in Muslim communities. “In the future, we will gather that information, if necessary, through direct contact between the police precincts and the representatives of the communities they serve,” said Stephen Davis, chief spokesman of the department.