Whereas the First Amendment of the Constitution ensures
freedom of speech, religion, and assembly;
Whereas the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution protects
from unreasonable searches and seizures;
Whereas the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution
guarantees the equal protection of the laws to all people regardless of their
religion, race, ethnicity, or national origin;
Whereas, in August 2011, press reports revealed the New
York City Police Department engaged in extensive surveillance and investigation
of individuals and groups in the Muslim community based upon their religion,
race, ethnicity, and national origin, and without a reasonable, articulable
basis to suspect that the individual or group has engaged in or is about to
engage in unlawful conduct;
Whereas the New York City Police Department engaged in
unreasonable, suspicion-less surveillance and investigations of mosques,
college campuses, restaurants, businesses, and individuals without evidence of
wrongdoing or criminality;
Whereas the New York City Police Department documented and
retained information about the First Amendment-protected activities of
individuals and groups surveyed or investigated in these intelligence
operations;
Whereas according to these reports and information now
made available to the public, the New York City Police Department conducted
operations well beyond its jurisdiction in other municipalities in New York and
other States, including Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and which
may be ongoing;
Whereas the unreasonable suspicion-less surveillance and
investigation of Muslim American communities undermines the Nation’s commitment
to religious liberty and equal protection of the law;
Whereas these unreasonable suspicion-less surveillance
practices stigmatize innocent members of the Muslim community merely because of
their religion;
Whereas the Central Intelligence Agency has publicly
acknowledged that it had personnel assisting and training New York City Police
Department officers who subsequently engaged in surveillance and investigation
of Muslim Americans in the absence of suspicion of illegal activity;
Whereas this episode recalls other dark chapters in the
Nation’s history, including the internment of Japanese Americans during World
War II, and the illegal surveillance of civil rights and anti-war activists by
intelligence and law enforcement agencies during the 1960s and 1970s;
Whereas Congress has allocated millions of dollars to the
New York City Police Department;
Whereas, in December 2011, 34 Members of Congress wrote
the Attorney General requesting an investigation of potential violations of the
law by the New York City Police Department and Central Intelligence Agency, and
also requested a hearing by the House Committee on the Judiciary into this
issue; and
Whereas, on March 19, 2012, 117 groups representing a
range of concerned citizens likewise called upon the Department of Justice to
launch an investigation into the New York City Police Department’s illicit
ethnic and religious profiling and surveillance of Muslim American communities:
Now, therefore, be it
That the House of
Representatives—
(1)condemns the unjustified surveillance and
unlawful profiling of Muslim American communities by the New York Police
Department;
(2)demands that the New York Police Department
cease and desist with any such warrantless surveillance activities within the
United States and purge its intelligence databases; and
(3)urges the
Department of Justice to immediately investigate whether the New York Police
Department’s action violated the Constitution or any Federal law, and whether
any agency of the Federal Government facilitated any profiling or surveillance
conducted by the New York Police Department against members of the Muslim
American community in violation of the Constitution or any Federal law.