WaPo op-ed: Bloomberg's NYPD spied on me for being Muslim. He has never apologized

[melman]

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Bloomberg’s surveillance of Muslims extended beyond New York into Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey and elsewhere. The program was so secretive and intrusive that Cory Booker, then the mayor of Newark, was not informed of it. Thousands of informants infiltrated Muslim sacred spaces, restaurants, cafes, student associations, businesses and other social settings to spy on and entrap ordinary people. The clandestine nature of this surveillance did not make it harmless: It caused significant, documented harm to Muslim communities: it dampened organizing, reduced religious practice and caused people to self-censor their political speech. It engendered social mistrust and fear among Muslims, and also between our communities and law enforcement.


Bloomberg, meanwhile, has remained unapologetic. In 2012, he even defended the surveillance, saying that the police had a duty to “keep this country safe.”

The policies that sent cops into predominantly black and Hispanic communities to harass residents are intimately linked to those that sent informants into sacred spaces to monitor and entrap Muslims. Black, Latinx, South Asian, Arab and Muslim populations — identities which often overlap — suffered enormously under Bloomberg’s administration. In the name of security, he pursued ineffective measures that harmed vulnerable populations. Stop-and-frisk, warrantless surveillance and similar policies compounded one another, leaving a lingering sense that we are unsafe in our own neighborhoods and gathering spaces. We still grapple with that legacy of intimidation and stigma today, even as Bloomberg himself refuses to reckon with it.

New Yorkers who came of age under Bloomberg were targeted in myriad ways by the NYPD, which he once called his “personal army.” We saw how he used his power on a local level. What he could unleash on a national level, with all the powers of the presidency, would far eclipse it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/20/bloombergs-nypd-spied-me-being-muslim-he-has-never-apologized/

[BusyBeingBest]

1. File under: things that don't help in a Dem primary, but will not matter against tRump.

[PoliticAverse]

2. Of course it will. Democrats won't turn out in large numbers to vote for a Republican. n/t

[BusyBeingBest]

3. He's a Democrat.

[PoliticAverse]

4. Know a lot of Democrats that suppoorted George Bush over John Kerry and thought Mitt Romney...

"could have done a better job than Obama" do ya?

[BusyBeingBest]

5. He was a Repub/Indie then. And STILL supported a number of progressive issues.

Even when they were unpopular in his own party. How many Repubs fight the NRA? Or support women's choice? Or environmental protection? Supported gay marriage? He did all this, and put his words, money and efforts towards it, WHILE HE WAS A REPUB. He's not a perfect Democrat with a perfect history, but it's the best fit for him now.