NYPD Targetted Muslim Students

Chris Hawley reports that the New York Police Department monitored Muslim students to a much greater extent than previously reported, which comes as a great surprise to everyone who mistakenly thinks that an unsupervised police force will somehow magically behave itself and not abuse its power.

The key takeaway in the article?

[Police Commissioner] Kelly and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg repeatedly have said that the police only follow legitimate leads about suspected criminal activity.

But the latest documents mention no wrongdoing by any students.

Of course, this has nothing to do with actually monitoring for religious extremism or potential threats of violence. It has to do with ignorance and bigotry.

If you can’t get enough of that delicious blend of ignorance and bigotry, take a look at the comments to the article. I should know better than to glance at the lower level of hell reserved exclusively for the comments sections of news organizations, but I perused this one long enough to confirm that it’s full of patriotic and religious people who want to punish American Muslims for being…um, American? Religious?

I don’t know. I’m so confused. Remind me again why Michael Bloomberg is so lauded?