A lengthy report from Fox News details how one cafe in Bay Ridge fell victim to the NYPD’s increased and unlawful surveillance of the Muslim community.
According to the owner Mousa Ahmad, undercover police constantly loitered across the street and hung around in his cafe for hours, eavesdropping on conversations. Everybody in the neighborhood knew of the surveillance. Eventually his cafe got a bad name and the customers stopped coming–they didn’t want to be blacklisted and eventually, Ahmad had to close the place.
He is one of many Muslims that were targeted by a massive police surveillance program as uncovered by an Associated Press Investigation. What’s more, they feel they have little recourse because privacy laws have weakened dramatically in the wake of 9/11.
“It’s really not clear that people can do anything if they’ve been subjected to unlawful surveillance anymore,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
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