NEW YORK — Ten years after 9/11, the New York Police Department’s surveillance of Muslims has exposed a bitter divide between New Yorkers and their neighbors across the Hudson River, with city leaders defending the police force and out-of-town politicians angry to learn of New York detectives working their turf.
In New York, where random searches in the subway are the norm and Lower Manhattan is a maze of security barriers and guardhouses, polls show many residents support the NYPD. Editorial pages have said broad surveillance is needed to protect the city.
But across the Hudson River in New Jersey, and increasingly in Washington, politicians have decried the NYPD’s programs, and newspapers have editorialized against the surveillance operations.
The intelligence-gathering was first reported by The Associated Press in August, but it wasn’t until February that its reporters obtained documents detailing how the NYPD monitored Muslims beyond the city limits.
