The NYPD's surveillance tactics have gotten plenty of press for keeping tabs on Muslim communities far and wide, but it appears they're watching Occupy Wall Street just as closely. The Times reports that three protesters are suing the city after an incident in November led to their arrest for obstructing governmental administration, charges that were later dropped by the DA's office. According to 20-year-old Kira Moyer-Sims, 30 police officers surrounded the car they were sitting in and later drilled her on her relationship with the movement. “I felt like I had been arrested for a thought crime,” Moyer-Sims said.
As in the case of the department's surveillance of Muslims, the NYPD's ability to keep tabs on political activity derives from the Handschu agreement, the terms of which were significantly loosened after 9/11. Those new powers also came in handy around the 2004 GOP convention. “The N.Y.P.D. surveillance does not appear to be limited to unlawful activity,” NYCLU's executive director Donna Lieberman said. Indeed, it appears to include people who sit in cafes or go white water rafting.
Another protester came home to her Bushwick apartment to find officers outside her building to perform a "security check." They followed her into her building and threatened her with arrest if she didn't let them enter.
And a 32-year-old engineer from Virginia who is a Pakistani-born, naturalized U.S. citizen was arrested at a protest in January and asked "whether he had ever been to Yemen or met anyone connected to Al Qaeda," and was rigorously questioned about his work and travel history.
