My dad just emailed me this photo

My dad just emailed me this photo

The body of Gaspare Candella stuffed in a covered drum discovered (by children) in Brooklyn.(Courtesy New York City Municipal Archives), 1918

The body of Gaspare Candella stuffed in a covered drum discovered (by children) in Brooklyn.(Courtesy New York City Municipal Archives), 1918

172 Norfolk Street, which is now the Angel Orensanz Foundation (Courtesy New York City Municipal Archives), circa 1983

172 Norfolk Street, which is now the Angel Orensanz Foundation (Courtesy New York City Municipal Archives), circa 1983

Manhattan Bridge as a work in progress.(Courtesy New York City Municipal Archives), June 5, 1908

Manhattan Bridge as a work in progress.(Courtesy New York City Municipal Archives), June 5, 1908

Painters in the wires of the Brooklyn Bridge.(Photo by Eugene de Salignac, Courtesy New York City Municipal Archives), October 7, 1914

Painters in the wires of the Brooklyn Bridge.(Photo by Eugene de Salignac, Courtesy New York City Municipal Archives), October 7, 1914

6th Avenue and 40th Street. Caption on photo reads: “Nazi Army Now 75 Miles From Paris.”(Courtesy New York City Municipal Archives), May 18, 1940

6th Avenue and 40th Street. Caption on photo reads: “Nazi Army Now 75 Miles From Paris.”(Courtesy New York City Municipal Archives), May 18, 1940

north side of Delancey Street(Courtesy New York City Municipal Archives), July 29, 1908

north side of Delancey Street(Courtesy New York City Municipal Archives), July 29, 1908

NYPD monitored Muslim students all over Northeast

Associated Press= NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Police Department monitored Muslim college students far more broadly than previously known, at schools far beyond the city limits, including the Ivy League colleges of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, The Associated Press has learned.

Police talked with local authorities about professors 300 miles away in Buffalo and even sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip, where he recorded students’ names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed.

Detectives trawled Muslim student websites every day and, although professors and students had not been accused of any wrongdoing, their names were recorded in reports prepared for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Asked about the monitoring, police spokesman Paul Browne provided a list of 12 people arrested or convicted on terrorism charges in the United States and abroad who had once been members of Muslim student associations, which the NYPD referred to as MSAs. Jesse Morton, who this month pleaded guilty to posting online threats against the creators of “South Park,” had once tried to recruit followers at Stony Brook University on Long Island, Browne said.

“As a result, the NYPD deemed it prudent to get a better handle on what was occurring at MSAs,” Browne said in an email. He said police monitored student websites and collected publicly available information, but did so only between 2006 and 2007.

“I see a violation of civil rights here,” said Tanweer Haq, chaplain of the Muslim Student Association at Syracuse. “Nobody wants to be on the list of the FBI or the NYPD or whatever. Muslim students want to have their own lives, their own privacy and enjoy the same freedoms and opportunities that everybody else has.”

In recent months, the AP has revealed secret programs the NYPD, built with help from the CIA, to monitor Muslims at the places where they eat, shop and worship. The AP also published details about how police placed undercover officers at Muslim student associations in colleges within the city limits; this revelation has outraged faculty and student groups.

Though the NYPD says it follows the same rules as the FBI, some of the NYPD’s activities go beyond what the FBI is allowed to do.

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.

 

NYPD Kicks Door Before Shooting Unarmed Teen

Surveillance video outside the Bronx home of Ramarley Graham shows police struggling to enter the residence and kicking in a door moments before an NYPD officer shot and killed the unarmed 18-year-old in his bathroom. While surveillance footage from a neighboring home showed Graham running down the street with police pursuing, this footage obtained by WPIX 11 shows Graham casually entering his house. Seconds later two NYPD officers with their guns drawn attempt to break down the door.

Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters on Friday that the officer who shot Graham, 30-year-old Richard Haste, shouted “Show me your hands!” and “Gun! Gun!” at the teenager before shooting him in the chest in his bathroom. But the only other person in the apartment at the time, Graham’s 58-year-old grandmother Patricia Hartley, told the Times through friend of the family Carlton Berkley that she heard no such thing. Additionally, residents of the apartment dispute the NYPD’s assertion that the officers announced themselves when forcibly entering their home.

Also at issue is the manner in which Hartley was treated: Berkley says she was held at the 47th Precinct for seven hours so that she could give police a statement. “She gave it against her will,” Berkley, a retired police detective says. “She didn’t want to speak to police.” Paul Browne, the NYPD’s spokesperson, said that Hartley was “naturally upset but cooperative,” and said she actually spent five and a half hours speaking with police.

Commissioner Kelly told reporters on Friday that Hartley “certainly should have been shown a sensitivity on that issue. I would hope that she was. If not…we’ll certainly investigate.” Officer Haste, a three-year veteran, and another Sergeant who was in the stairwell, have both been placed on desk duty.

Despite twice reporting over radio communications that Graham had a gun, police searched Graham’s apartment and other residences in the home and found no firearms. Graham was killed in his bathroom, allegedly dumping a small amount of marijuana into the toilet. Police accounts that Graham had struggled proved to be false. Commissioner Kelly told reporters that the case may be handed over to a grand jury to determine whether a crime was committed.

“Why would you break in a house and shoot a young man and kill him?” Rev. Al Sharpton said yesterday. “You cannot get to a conclusion without starting with the premise. The premise is wrong. They had no business breaking in the house.”