NYPD Secret Surveillance Of Students 'disgusting'

Published February 25, 2012 11:54PM (EST)

NEW YORK (AP) — At New York's Columbia University, fear that police might secretly be infiltrating their lives has spread beyond the Muslim student population.

Freshman Dina Morris says it's "disgusting." Morris, the daughter of a Jamaican immigrant, says that "if this is happening to innocent Muslim students, who's next?"

Her comments follow Associated Press reports that the NYPD conducted surveillance of Muslims at colleges in the Northeast.

Mona Abdullah, a member of Columbia's Muslim Students Association, says students were "distressed and frazzled" at first. But now, she says there's "a sense of unity, because it's not an issue that affects only Muslims." She cited the NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactics, whose targets were mostly minorities.

Most students say they won't change how they live for fear of being watched — because they're not doing anything wrong.


By Salon Staff

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