Justice Before Breakfast: Why I Skipped Mayor Bloomberg’s Breakfast
January 5, 2012Linda Sarsour
On August 23rd of
this year I was invited to Gracie Mansion to attend Mayor Michael
Bloomberg’s Annual Iftar, a break of fast during the Muslim holy month
of Ramadan. For the duration of the evening I sat next to Police
Commissioner Ray Kelly. We discussed the significance of Ramadan and I
pressed him on his department’s lack of response to letters we sent
requesting to meet with staff of the NYPD training department. He nodded
and said that he’s sure his people would get back to us. They never
did.
This was not
the first time I had engaged Commissioner Kelly or NYPD senior level
staff on issues of concern to my community. Arab and Muslim New Yorkers
have worked closely with the NYPD for as long as elders in our community
can remember. As a matter of fact, my organization’s soccer team,
Brooklyn United, won the NYPD Commissioner’s Cup in 2009 -- a triumphant
moment for our youth. We have also invited members of the NYPD to
events, town halls, and religious services.
In the 10 years
since 9/11, I have worked as director of a social services organization
in Brooklyn called the Arab American Association of New York, and as
the advocacy and civic engagement coordinator for the National Network
for Arab American Communities. In these roles I have done my best to
increase understanding between Arabs, Muslims and other New Yorkers, as
well as to advocate for local and national policies that keep us all
safe and united.
As part of my
job to provide social services to residents of Brooklyn, I have had to
counsel Muslim New Yorkers, especially immigrants and youth, who have
suffered at the hands of law enforcement agents engaging in misconduct.
On numerous occasions I delivered firsthand accounts of these abuses to
senior officials of the FBI, NYPD, and Department of Justice, as well as
to local, state and federal elected officials. Many refused to believe
that Arab and Muslim Americans were being ethnically and racially
profiled by law enforcement.
The skeptics
were given a jolt when the Associated Press confirmed 10 years of
speculation by releasing an investigative report in August outlining a
broad surveillance program targeting Muslim community members simply
because of their religion – not because of leads or suspicious behavior.
The report also alleged that the CIA had been violating a ban on
domestic spying by collaborating with the NYPD. Ironically, this report
was released at 6:00 am the morning after I sat next to Commissioner
Kelly at Mayor Bloomberg’s Annual Ramadan Iftar.
Instead of
joining the growing number of elected officials and community activists
calling for accountability and rule of law, Mayor Bloomberg defended the
police department’s suspicionless surveillance of New Yorkers at
schools, businesses, and mosques. By pretending to befriend their Muslim
neighbors in order to spy on them, law enforcement officials were
betraying the very people who considered themselves allies and partners
in keeping our streets safe.
Some people
have asked why I didn’t show up to “engage” Mr. Bloomberg and
Commissioner Kelly on the issue. Before, during and after the breakfast,
both leaders continued to reassure New Yorkers that they are not
engaging in religious and ethnic profiling. Our very own Department of
Justice defines religious and ethnic profiling as “any
police-initiated action that relies on the race, ethnicity, or national
origin rather than the behavior of an individual." The AP investigation
revealed that there is, in fact, a demographics unit coupled with a
list of 25 ancestries of interest used to conduct intelligence
gathering. If that’s not ethnic and religious profiling, I don’t know
what is.
Not only are racial and ethnic profiling practices wrong and unconstitutional, they waste taxpayer dollars and they make us all less safe. According to a report released by the American Civil Liberties Union in October, "empirical
data show that terrorists and criminals do not fit neat racial, ethnic,
national-origin or religious stereotypes, and using such flawed
profiles is a recipe for failure. The
heinous acts of terrorism committed by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy
McVeigh and John Stacks, the man who flew his plane into an IRS building
in Texas, confirm that effective law enforcement techniques must be
based on criminal behavior and not race, religion or nationality in
order to ensure our nation’s security.
Muslim
community leaders have sent numerous letters to Commissioner Kelly in
the past year regarding bigoted and sensational training materials being
used by the NYPD that instill hatred rather than prepare officers to
police Muslim communities. To this day, we have received no response.
Civic engagement is a two-way street and the Arab American and Muslim
American community are doing their part. It is time that New York City’s
leaders do theirs.
Last week the
CIA announced that an internal watchdog had found nothing wrong with the
agency’s NYPD collaboration. But how can we trust the CIA to
investigate itself? All we are asking for at this juncture is that Mayor
Bloomberg initiate an independent investigation of the NYPD
intelligence gathering program and make public the conclusive reports of
the investigation. Mayor Bloomberg and Mr. Kelly are accountable to the
citizens of New York City and we will continue to demand that
accountability.
As for now,
rhetoric of any kind will not stop me from standing up for the right of
New Yorkers to live their lives without having to fear being spied on
simply because of their religion or the color of their skin. I owe it to
myself and to my children to continue to defend the very rights
afforded to us by the Constitution of the United States.
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