Privacy SOS

#OWS mic-check calls for solidarity with Muslims against NYPD spying

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In this video, Occupy Wall Street activists call on the movement to support their fellow New Yorkers, Muslims who have come under undue police surveillance simply because of their religion.

The woman mic-checking here explains that Muslim community groups have reached out to #OWS and asked the movement to align itself with their calls for Ray Kelly to resign, and for a federal investigation into the NYPD's improper spying program.

The connections between the Occupy movement and the movement to stop NYPD religiously motivated spying are clear: the police spy not only on Muslims, but also on activists who raise their voices against perceived injustice. We know that OWS activists have been harassed and surveiled by police officers in their homes and places of organizing, even though they broke no law. 

Here in Boston, activists with the Occupy movement are likewise concerned. At a speakout on Sunday March 18, in solidarity with the #OWS day of action and against police brutality, one Occupy Boston activist told the crowd that members of the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), a spy center, had followed activists home, stalked them in the street, and physically intimidated them.

It is heartening to see that Occupy Wall Street activists and Muslim activists working against NYPD spying are making links between their struggles for police justice. The woman mic-checking this request in the video got a good response from the crowd; when she finished, someone began singing "Solidarity Forever." But the video doesn't show what happened next.

Does anyone know where this stands? If so, please get in touch! 

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