NewsLo
NewsLo
  • Home
  • Business
    • Accounting
    • Advertising
    • Branding
    • Career
    • Cyber Security
    • Entrepreneur
    • Jobs
    • Management
    • Marketing
    • Non Profit
    • Sales
    • Search Engine Optimization
    • Web Design
  • Finance
    • Banking
    • Bankruptcy
    • Budgeting
    • Credit
    • Debt
    • Estate Wills & Trusts
    • Home Improvements
    • Law
    • Loans
    • Personal Finance
    • Taxes
    • Shopping
  • Investment
    • Crypto Currency
    • Gold & Silver
    • Hard Assets
    • Real Estate
    • Retirement
    • Stocks & Bonds
    • Trading
  • Real Estate
    • Buying
    • Selling
    • Commercial Construction
    • Construction Law
    • Home Improvement
    • Loans
    • Property Management
    • Real Estate Laws
    • Rental Property
  • Insurance
    • Auto Insurance
    • Commercial Real Estate Insurance
    • Crop Insurance
    • Dental Insurance
    • Disability Insurance
    • Health Insurance
    • Home Owners Insurance
    • Identity Theft Protection
    • Insurance Law
    • Investment Insurance
    • Life Insurance
    • Pet Insurance
    • Renters Insurance
  • Contact Us
  • New York
  • Today's Headlines

Members of NYPD’s Demographics Unit Find Islam After Spying on Muslims

  • April 23, 2014
  • NewsLo
  • No comments
  • 2 minute read
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0

NEW YORK — Many of the plainclothes police detectives involved in the New York Police Department’s covert program to spy on Muslims continue to defend its usefulness, if not for the Demographics Unit’s ability to uncover a terrorism lead—which the department admits it never had—then for the “religious journey” it provided.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by the Associated Press first exposed the department’s attempts to map Muslim “hotspots” and eavesdrop on their conversations in 2011. Since then, outrage from the Islamic community, two federal lawsuits, and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s campaign to rein in police overreach has led the NYPD’s new commissioner to shutter the unit, which later became known as the Zone Assessment Unit.

Others see the unit’s work in a different light. Raymond Kelly, the city’s former police commissioner, has argued that the surveillance was completely legal and helped the department obtain “contextual information about what was going on in the city.”

Kelly claims that the information gleaned by informants known as “mosque crawlers,” who surveilled religious sermons for the department, completely changed his thinking on Islam.

“I found in the religion a sense of purpose and fulfillment I had never before experienced, a real conversion” the former police commissioner who now goes by the name of Raymond X told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

“I think we have a very strong working relationship with the—certainly the Muslim community. I have a group that we meet with on a regular basis, of opinion formers,” he continued. “We meet in a mosque and talk about the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him peace and blessings.”

X indicated that he was not alone in his religious rebirth. At least six others in the unit, which typically consisted of about a dozen members, took from their pilgrimage through the places where Muslims eat, pray, learn, and shop a more intimate snapshot of Islamic life.

“The Zone Assessment Unit may be no more, but the understanding it brought has forever bound us together as followers of Islam and bona fide members of the community,” said one officer.

Mayor de Blasio said that dismantling the unit represented “a critical step forward in easing tensions between the police and the communities they serve, so that our cops and our citizens can help one another go after the real bad guys,” and, he hopes, “help them find the one true religion of God.”

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Related Topics
  • news humor
  • Newslo
  • NYPD Colorlines
  • Satire
NewsLo

Previous Article
FDA Blames Alcohol for its Approval of Powdered Alcohol 1
  • Today's Headlines
  • US

FDA Blames Alcohol for its Approval of Powdered Alcohol

  • April 22, 2014
  • NewsLo
View Post
Next Article
David Cameron Blasted for Accurately Describing British Government 2
  • Today's Headlines
  • World

David Cameron Blasted for Accurately Describing British Government

  • April 23, 2014
  • NewsLo
View Post
You May Also Like
New York Reading List
View Post
  • New York

Start Spreading The News: Your Essential New York Reading List

  • NewsLo
  • June 5, 2020
Trump Compares Ivanka To Syrian Children: “She’s Also Suffered A Lot As My Daughter, Had To Move Between Countries All The Time Just Like Them” 3
View Post
  • US
  • Latest Lies
  • Today's Headlines
  • US-Feature

Trump Compares Ivanka To Syrian Children: “She’s Also Suffered A Lot As My Daughter, Had To Move Between Countries All The Time Just Like Them”

  • NewsLo
  • July 9, 2017
Spicer: “Trump Has The Legal Right To Cancel SCOTUS Because They Serve At His Pleasure” 4
View Post
  • Featured
  • Latest Lies
  • Today's Headlines

Spicer: “Trump Has The Legal Right To Cancel SCOTUS Because They Serve At His Pleasure”

  • NewsLo
  • June 20, 2017
John Hagee Calls For “Prosecuting Women Who Say God’s Name During Intercourse” 5
View Post
  • Religion
  • Today's Headlines
  • US

John Hagee Calls For “Prosecuting Women Who Say God’s Name During Intercourse”

  • NewsLo
  • June 15, 2017
Trump’s Lawyer Said President Made A Mistake By Firing Comey Because “As The Commander In Chief, He Could Arrested And Jailed Him Forever” 6
View Post
  • US
  • Politics
  • Politics-Feature
  • Today's Headlines
  • US-Feature

Trump’s Lawyer Said President Made A Mistake By Firing Comey Because “As The Commander In Chief, He Could Arrested And Jailed Him Forever”

  • NewsLo
  • June 10, 2017
Ted Cruz Father Suggests Placing Atheists in ‘Camps’ 7
View Post
  • Today's Headlines
  • US

Ted Cruz Father Suggests Placing Atheists in ‘Camps’

  • NewsLo
  • June 5, 2017
Rep. Tom Reed Suggests Increasing Military Budget “So The Poor Can Feel Safe And Stop Stealing Our Money For Their Health” 8
View Post
  • Featured
  • New York
  • New York Feature

Rep. Tom Reed Suggests Increasing Military Budget “So The Poor Can Feel Safe And Stop Stealing Our Money For Their Health”

  • NewsLo
  • June 5, 2017
Trump: “Unlike Obama, I Only Bowed Down Because The Golden Necklace Was Super Heavy” 9
View Post
  • Featured
  • Today's Headlines
  • World
  • World Feature

Trump: “Unlike Obama, I Only Bowed Down Because The Golden Necklace Was Super Heavy”

  • NewsLo
  • May 20, 2017

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

NewsLo
  • Today’s Headlines
  • Featured
  • US
  • Politics
  • World
  • Media
  • Sports
  • Privacy Policy

Input your search keywords and press Enter.