{"id":1859,"date":"2012-01-05T18:55:16","date_gmt":"2012-01-06T00:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/?p=1859"},"modified":"2012-01-05T18:55:16","modified_gmt":"2012-01-06T00:55:16","slug":"citywide-monitoring-of-muslims-hits-home-for-hunter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/2012\/01\/05\/citywide-monitoring-of-muslims-hits-home-for-hunter\/","title":{"rendered":"Citywide Monitoring of Muslims Hits Home for Hunter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hunter College\u2019s Muslim Students Association discovered earlier this year that the silent strangers who often sat in on their club meetings were actually undercover NYPD informants. An in-depth Associated Press investigation revealed that Muslims all over the city, including those in student groups in the city\u2019s colleges, were being spied on by New York\u2019s Finest.<\/p>\n

Leaked police documents that supplemented the AP investigation suggested that the spying had begun as early as 2006. Reactions within the Hunter community have varied from outrage to indifference. Some argue that the spying is blatantly racist and illegal, while others defend it in the name of security. The Muslim community at Hunter, mirroring feelings voiced by many Muslim New Yorkers at a rally in November, felt unfairly singled out and argued that their rights were being violated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
"Muslim community members and their supporters march near New York City police headquarters on Nov. 18 to protest the NYPD surveillance operations of Muslim communities." AP; Photo: Bebeto Matthews, AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s worse because many students are not even willing to speak out against the blatant discrimination,\u201d said a Muslim student and MSA-member who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “Because they don\u2019t want what they say to be used against them.\u201d The student added that many Muslim students at Hunter were \u201cterrified\u201d and felt helpless in fixing the situation.<\/p>\n

Although some Muslim students were unsure whom to turn to, President Jennifer Raab\u2019s spokesperson Meredith Halpern said in an email, \u201cThe Office of Diversity and Compliance remains available to discuss concerns the [MSA] may have.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many condemn the spying, others don\u2019t see a need to do so. Finn Quigley, a recent graduate of Hunter College and aspiring police officer, feels the spying could be justified. \u201cIf I was a radical Islamist, I would do my best to get followers from college Muslims, because it\u2019d be easier than other groups. So to me, it makes sense that they are spying on college Muslim groups,\u201d he said. Quigley also pointed out that law enforcement often spied on a number of different groups at any given time.<\/p>\n

Although Quigley can see how the spying could be problematic, he doesn\u2019t think it calls for outrage. \u201cIt\u2019s the smart thing to do to prevent another attack, but it does walk a very fine line between security and our freedoms. Maybe it crosses that line, but I\u2019m not sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While the Hunter administration has not issued a public statement on the issue, members of Hunter\u2019s faculty have responded strongly against the spying. The Hunter College Faculty Delegate Assembly called for \u201cCUNY\u2019s central administration to issue a public statement outlining its opposition to on-campus surveillance, based on the principle of academic freedom and a robust commitment to civil liberties.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it is not yet clear if anyone at Hunter knew about the monitoring in advance, the AP report alleged that CUNY officials might have released student records to the NYPD. Halpern said the administration had no knowledge relating to that charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no evidence that Hunter knew in advance,\u201d added Joanne Mariner, Professor and Director of Hunter College\u2019s Human Rights Program, but she mentioned that it would cause problems for CUNY if the allegations were true. \u201cThat would be a complete violation of privacy statutes,\u201d she said, which could cause Hunter to lose federal funding.<\/p>\n

Mariner, who has also served as the Director of the Terrorism\/Counter-Terrorism Program of Human Rights Watch, not only views the monitoring of Muslim communities as inherently unconstitutional, but also as ineffective and bad police work. \u201cWhen you cast too wide a net, you\u2019re wasting resources,\u201d criticized Mariner, \u201cand you alienate members of that community, who are the best sources of information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly disagreed, as demonstrated in an interview given to the Brian Lehrer show in September. \u201cWe’re not violating the law in the activities we undertake.\u201d he said. Contrary to Mariner, Kelly also considered the spying to be a successful strategy. \u201cI think it’s very important in protecting New York City from a terrorist attack,\u201d added Kelly.<\/p>\n

Others argued that criticisms are missing the larger picture.\u00a0 Student Michael Knower believed that while it was unfair, there were probably security reasons involved in the NYPD\u2019s decision to spy on Muslim New Yorkers. \u201cI actually believe that the NYPD has most citizens’ best interests in mind, and I support the \u2018for the greater good\u2019 argument,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the spying unnerved Human Rights student Jamie Leone. \u201cEveryone thinks it\u2019s okay when it\u2019s happening to someone else,\u201d she said, \u201cbut you don\u2019t realize that tomorrow, that person could be you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hunter College\u2019s Muslim Students Association discovered earlier this year that the silent strangers who often sat in on their club meetings were actually undercover NYPD informants. An in-depth Associated Press investigation revealed that Muslims all over the city, including those in student groups in the city\u2019s colleges, were being spied on by New York\u2019s Finest….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":703,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[369,1037,1443,1455,1472,1523,1565,2177],"class_list":["post-1859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hunter","tag-campus-news","tag-hunter-college","tag-monitoring","tag-msa","tag-muslim","tag-new-york-city","tag-nypd","tag-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/703"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}