Police in New York City have abandoned the systematic surveillance of Muslims started in 2003 as a way to spot terrorist activity.
Under the program, undercover officers of the euphemistically termed Demographics Unit routinely followed Muslims around the city, creating maps where they would gather for meals and social time, checking vehicle registration plates at mosques and ordering their network of informants to videotape sermons. The practice remained secret until news agency Associated Press published a series of reports exposing its existence in 2011. In over ten years, the program failed to yield any credible leads.
“The Demographics Unit created psychological warfare in our community,” Linda Sarsour, of the Arab American Association of New York, told journalists. “Those documents, they showed where we live. That’s the cafe where I eat. That’s where I pray. That’s where I buy my groceries. They were able to see their entire lives on those maps. And it completely messed with the psyche of the community.”
The Demographics Unit was terminated by NYC’s new police commissioner William Bratton, who vetoed plans for a similar scheme in Los Angeles while he was in charge there.
