Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the NYPD has become one of the country's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies. A months-long investigation by The Associated Press has revealed that the NYPD operates far outside its borders and targets ethnic communities in ways that would run afoul of civil liberties rules if practiced by the federal government. And it does so with unprecedented help from the CIA in a partnership that has blurred the bright line between foreign and domestic spying.
Well, yeah. New York City has a big target on it. I even recall stories from years ago that discussed how the NYPD kept people overseas to detect plots against New York targets early. The AP story mentions that and more. It is interesting.
And on the civil liberties point, this is why I've gone on over the years about making sure we go on offense to defeat the terrorists and their enablers rather than just taking a European, nuanced view of "acceptable" civilian casualties by staying on defense and getting on with our lives (as long as we aren't in the blast radius). As long as the war goes on, terrorists will penetrate our defenses and lead to ratcheting up of passive security measures that infringe on our civil liberties. If you are truly concerned about civil liberties (as we all should be), you should be screaming for victory rather than screaming about our tactics.
We can have temporary setbacks to civil liberties in the name of security until we win or we can have long term erosion of civil liberties in a struggle we tire of fighting but which our enemies do not tire of waging.
