White House, NY lawmaker back NYPD after report undercover police eavesdropped on Muslims
AP
September 1, 2011
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism adviser and the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee are offering support for the New York Police Department after an Associated Press investigation revealed a secret unit that monitored life inside Muslim communities.
The adviser, John Brennan, says he has been impressed with what the NYPD Intelligence Division has done to keep New Yorkers safe.
And New York Rep. Peter King told the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association on Thursday that the NYPD’s tactics should serve as a model for federal law enforcement. But he said the federal government is too politically correct and not innovative enough.
The NYPD’s Demographics Unit mapped ethnic communities and used undercover officers known as “rakers” to eavesdrop in businesses and monitor daily life in Muslim neighborhoods.