If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The truth matters. That's why I am working with my colleague Jumaane Williams, the Brennan Center for Justice, and other groups on legislation to establish an NYPD Inspector General.
The New York City Police Department's (NYPD) Stop, Question-and-Frisk Program, known as "Stop-and-Frisk," must end. The safety of our communities cannot be purchased at the price of the civil liberties of the law abiding citizenry of New York City (NYC).
Stop and frisk is an acceptable policing tool. That is not the question at hand. The question is whether the NYPD's current usage of stop and frisk is effective, legal and/or necessary.
Since the NYPD was awarded control over school safety in 1998, serious questions have been raised regarding the abilities of NYPD School Safety Agents to distinguish minor school disciplinary issues from criminal behavior.
I've been asked to explain why the NYPD vigorously pursues a potentially dangerous and controversial "stop, question and frisk" policy in New York City -- the safest large city in America. The answer is simple -- because it works.
What is it going to take for Sikhs and Muslims to join together in solidarity against the common enemies of racist harassment and violence, racial and religious profiling, and Islamophobic bigotry?
The New Jersey FBI head who publicly criticized the NYPD's widespread spying on Newark's Muslims had the green light from FBI headquarters for a rare rebuke of NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
The Purim story has a happy ending, with enemies vanquished and Mordechai replacing his adversary Haman in a position of leadership. People of faith have a responsibility to ensure that today's story has a positive outcome.
When we find out that the NYPD is massively spying on people within and outside its jurisdiction who have never been suspected or accused of wrongdoing, you would think that the media would ask the right questions.
So long as the police engage in systemic racial profiling and attendant criminal punishments, community outreach is futile, as well as disingenuous.
Within 24 hours after Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle died from accidentally crashing his plane into a Manhattan high-rise in 2006, the NYPD was searching for a terrorism link.
The AP team has done an amazing job in its months-long investigation of the NYPD. The revelations come at a critical time when we cannot afford to waste resources or implement ineffective measures in counter-terrorism.
The NYPD has just released some startling numbers: five students are arrested on average each day in NYC public schools. In the period covered, 93 percent of those arrested were black or Latino and 75 percent were male.
In the same way the president is the country's commander-in-chief, New York City's mayor is the police commissioner-in-chief. That should be priority number one when we elect our next leader.
The New York City Police Department sent at least four officers to Buffalo, N.Y. to spy on that city's Somali community, according to an internal Intelligence Division "briefing report."
The damage that these scandals have caused in severing the lines of trust between law enforcement and the Muslim community may be irreparable in the short term, but it is not too late for the NYPD to begin assessing the policies that led us here.
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