Brooklyn, NY – Responding this morning to a question about the NYPD’s reported surveillance of Muslim student groups, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “I don’t know why keeping the country is safe is antithetical to the values of Yale.”
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“Yale’s freedoms to do research, to teach, to give people a place to say what they want to say is defended by the law enforcement throughout this country,” said the mayor during the question-and-answer portion of a press conference at the Brooklyn Public Library’s main branch this morning.
A recent A.P. report revealed that the N.Y.P.D. had monitored Muslim student groups, including at institutions like Yale, and had “even sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip, where he recorded students’ names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed.”
The president of Yale, Richard Levin, has since written a letter saying that “police surveillance based on religion, nationality, or peacefully expressed political opinions is antithetical to the values of Yale, the academic community, and the United States.”
The mayor said he saw nothing wrong with any of it.
Bloomberg’s statement is right on the mark. Yale is providing aid to terrorists by its position. Too many people have forgotten 9-11.
Unbelievable. This is what is bringing our country down-the fact that someone needs to justify critical national security procedures. If they are committing acts of terror, this is what must be done. The liberalism that pervades in this country is just amazing.
I’m not saying tha they should stop watching the only natinality of terrorists in the world. But just think a mounment how would we feel if for national interests the feds had reason to believe many jews areinvolved I’m money laundering? Bloomberg just gave a green light to unlimited access to tracing where wel davenhow and long it takes and moniter out businesses. At one point or another we have to say that people are entitled to freedom of privacy and are innocent till proven guilty.
Which civil rights have been violated? The NYPD, based on the reports, has not entered any private homes, tapped any phones or hacked any email accounts. It has not arrested anyone or taken anything. It is simply monitoring/ patrolling areas and places where extremism can take root.
Does anyone have a problem when the NYPD monitors groups of Italians or Russians that may or may not have mafia links?
Does the AP “investigate” when the NYPD tries to infiltrate such ethnic groups?
Should the NYPD wait till extremism takes hold of these islamic groups and then try to infiltrate? Should the NYPD wait till there is a real threat before it begins to monitor?(Not sure how they would hear about a threat without monitoring)
Should they wait for an actual attack before monitoring?