On September 17, 2015, KARAMAH co-sponsored a very important and timely panel discussion titled “Monitoring Minorities: The Past and Present of Discriminatory Surveillance Practices.” The event was organized by the Capital Area Muslim Bar Association (“CAMBA”) and speakers at the event were: Professor John Brittain, Linda Sarsour, and Rachel Levinson-Waldman. The panelists explored how these practices affect two overlapping minority communities, namely, African-Americans and Muslims. They also discussed the scope of discriminatory surveillance, the challenges it poses to communities and prospects for reform.
“Blacks have long been targets of police activity. I, myself, as a civil rights lawyer back in 1969 fresh out of law school, was profiled, targeted and spied on by the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission.” Professor John Brittain.
The discussion started with Pr. John Brittain, a veteran of the civil rights movement. He gave a historical perspective of surveillance practices in the U.S. and his own experience with these practices in Mississipi. The Sovereignty Commission used some of the same practices that are controversial today: infiltration of peaceful nonviolent civic organizations, collection of dossiers (often with false information), and tapping phones, said Pr. Brittain “They did not have the technologies of today, but they still took off their uniforms and put on plain clothes masquerading as participants in those events”. When the commission was finally exposed, “there was debate as to whether or not to release all the information it had collected, some of which was defamatory and would compromise the privacy of individuals. In the end, the decision was made to allow individuals to request access to their information. “My file was a number of feet high” joked Pr. Brittain.
“Oppression against any, is oppression against all.” – Pr. John Brittain
“The post 9/11 era invited a new round of abuse” said Pr. Brittain. After 9/11, Pr. Brittain fought against the Patriot Act during his time at the American Civil Liberties Union. “We were fighting against snooping and peeping into records and we supported the Librarians Association for resisting pressure to reveal library card users’ research records, he said” After 9/11, Muslims, Arabs and South Asians joined the civil rights struggle, because they were the main targets of these discriminatory practices. Pr. Brittain gave the example of the Tanveer vs. Lynch case to explain how the FBI uses the no-fly list as tactic of coercing Muslims to become informants. Pr. Britain stressed the need for solidarity against these discriminatory practices because “oppression against any, is oppression against all” and “if they come for you in the morning, they will come for the rest of us in the afternoon.”
As an activist who played a role in channeling and organizing opposition to Muslim specific surveillance programs in NY, Ms. Sarsour talked about the advocacy work done to address this issue. Ms. Sarsour talked about a report that leaked out of the NYPD in 2007 called ” Radicalization in the West: the Home Grown Threat.” The report listed routine things that Muslims do as red flags for terrorism, such as growing a beard, stopping smoking, frequenting mosques…etc. “A group came together and said this is a prescriptive document for practices against the Muslim community,” said Ms. Sarsour.
“They had dossiers on Muslim businesses, cafes, bookstores, Muslim Student Associations, Islamic schools, where Arab Muslims and South Asian Muslims played soccer and cricket, a list for radical leadership and dangerous leadership.” – Linda Sarsour
Moreover, there was a Demographics Unit in the NYPD, whose job was to map the everyday lives of Muslims. In 2011, the Associated Press published investigative reports revealing that NYPD was engaged in unwarranted surveillance of Muslims in New York City, which was not news for the Muslim community. It was instead confirmation of what they already knew was happening. Ms. Sarsour also talked about how these surveillance practices targeted her and her organization when she came to know that NYPD was planning to put a clandestine informant on the board of the Arab American Association of New York. Ms. Sarsour organized the community to lobby the NYPD to create an Inspector General to exercise independent oversight of the department. These efforts culminated in the passing of legislation in 2013 creating such an office.
There is a pressing need to continue educating and mobilizing against discriminatory surveillance practices because they infringe on freedom of speech and instill fear in people. The Muslim community includes black Muslims who have suffered from discriminatory police tactics for decades before 9/11 and immigrant Muslims, some who came from police states, who are joining their black brothers and sisters in the crucible of oppressive and discriminatory police tactics.
Ms. Levinson provided another perspective on the surveillance issue identifying 2 types of surveillance. The first type is the mass surveillance carried out by the NSA and justified on the grounds of 9/11. Edward Snowden helped the nation and the world realize the depth and absurdity of this surveillance. It was indiscriminate and discriminate at the same time and directed inward as well as outward. Edward Snowden revealed that the government was using programs that brought in so much information that it was overwhelming their computing power. In fact, collecting this information was inefficient and unhelpful and infringed upon Americans’ civil liberties and the privacy of people in and outside the U.S. The second type is surveillance applied by the FBI and the police departments which uses new sophisticated technologies that allow for mass collection and storage of information and connection amongst different databases. According to Ms. Levinson, the second type has been used to spy on policy activists and the Muslim community and it used technologies that include: cell phone tracking, GPS tracking and license plate readers.
The speakers clarified that they are not against all types of surveillance and that they understand that sometimes it is an effective law enforcement practice. The type of surveillance that is unacceptable is the one targeting entire groups based on their race, ethnic background, religion, political ideologies, etc. Surveillance should be based on credible information and real leads. Looking ahead, one of the recommendations the panel agreed on was that the Muslim community should re-frame the narrative from national security to a civil rights framework.
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