NYPD Have Also Spied On Liberal Groups

Earlier in the year, The Inquisitr brought you a story explaining that the NYPD had been keeping tabs on some 250 mosques and Muslim student groups using taxpayer dollars and government grants. That’s spying. On American citizens. Using your money. But Muslim-Americans aren’t alone. Turns out, liberal groups have been infiltrated as well.

An AP investigation uncovered documents showing that undercover NYPD officers have also been keeping tabs on liberal organizations, going to meetings, and even keeping intel files on liberal activists. It should go without saying that this reached well outside jurisdiction, but here’s an example anyway: In April of 2008, an NYPD officer was sent to the People’s Summit… in New Orleans. He came back with information on groups who were opposed to US immigration policies, labor laws, and racial profiling, and named one journalist and one organizer by name.

The NYPD used very similar spy tactics ahead of the Republican National Convention in 2004. They kept close watch over church and anti-war groups all over the country. At that time, the officials in charge said that it was necessary to make sure the convention was secure: “There was no political surveillance,” the NYPD’s top intelligence officer said. However, the NYPD gathered a decent chunk of intel listing activists purely on the bases of their political leanings, and the new documents uncovered by AP show that the subterfuge continued for years after the 2004 RNC.

So when did the NYPD take it upon itself to become… the FBI?

Is this legal? Should the NYPD answer for this?