While recognizing the balance between civil liberties and security is never easy an easy one to strike, The Interfaith Center of New York is deeply concerned to learn of reports of illegal collaboration between the NYPD and the CIA. As citizens of this city, we need to know if there is a possibility that our City’s local police force may have overstepped its authority through operating outside its own jurisdiction and crossed the line from providing proactive safety measures to spying on its own citizens. It is safe to say that there is no one more interested in making sure that their own communities and houses of worship are free from violent extremism than members of New York and New Jersey’s Muslim communities themselves. Thus, it is difficult to understand why the NYPD would choose such an alienating approach to these communities rather than working more cooperatively with their members. At the ICNY having spent the last 13 years seeing the way religiously diverse New Yorkers have been working to make our shared city a better and safer place for all people, and recognizing the some of the positive, preventative steps that the NYPD has made in terms of its community and clergy liaison work, it is deeply disappointing to learn of today’s report.
At this moment it is perhaps worth recalling Benjamin Franklin’s words: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety”
Follow link to AP article on washingtonpost.com
