Secret NYPD Intelligence Program Building Files On Certain Ethnicities

It started with the Moroccan Initiative, as that was the first group focused upon. The New York Police Department gathered information on certain ethnicities: where they eat, work and pray, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.

The documents obtained by the AP, many of which were marked “secret,” include a list of “Moroccan Locations,” a virtual tour of the city’s Moroccan neighborhoods. Photos of local businesses were accompanied by notes from plainclothes officers, known as rakers, who quietly kept tabs on neighborhoods and eavesdropped on conversations.

Sometimes the notes recorded in police files were detailed, such as the officer who reported that a local sandwich shop was close to a mosque and said the store was closed during Friday prayers.

“The restaurant serves only Halal meat,” the document said. “The majority of the customers are religious Muslims.”

…When a Moroccan was arrested, according to the documents, a unit called the Citywide Debriefing Team would visit him in jail or at his home. Each was asked how someone coming to the United States from Morocco might keep a low profile. Officers had a list of 13 questions, including where such a person might live, obtain identification cards, eat, worship and learn English.

The questions helped police identify small apartments in Brooklyn where Moroccan immigrants shared rooms soon after arriving in New York. Police visited one apartment in 2007 to meet with someone who had been arrested the prior year, according to the files. The officer noted the number of bedrooms, the layout, the furnishings and a wall calendar from a nearby mosque.

“There was a small table as well as an entertainment center,” the document said. “There were two Korans. One on top of each speaker.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.