Another slight of hand press release tricks The New York Times, but not the rest of us.
Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio authorised NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton to disband an unconstitutional police unit that stalked New York City's Muslim community. Predictably, The New York Times fawned over this token public relations move, but other media have expressed doubt whether the New York Police Department would voluntarily end its use of racial and faith-based profiling to surveil innocent citizens.
- RELATED : NYPD Will Continue Spying in the Muslim Community With Undercovers, Informants (The Daily Beast)
- RELATED : NYPD rhetoric on Muslim surveillance must be met by policy change (Washington Square News)
- RELATED : Was it Justice or Politics that Killled the NYPD Muslim Spy Unit ? (The Daily Beast)
The mayor and the police commissioner made such a public display of their "progressive" reforms to a police force battered by never-ending charges of unconstitutional tactics. "However, talk has circulated that the NYPD has little intention to stop deploying officers into Muslim areas in the city — it merely plans to do so without an official label," reported Washington Square News.
The true intention of the police department's continued violations of the Handschu Agreement is worrisome. Based on the mayor's other cosmetic changes in policy, the fact that some large, entrenched mainstream media outlets continue to accord the mayor and his police commissioner with the liberty to propagate so much political spin should raise serious concerns amongst government reform activists.
