Mayor Bill de Blasio and his police commissioner clashed Thursday over the NYPD’s practice of spying on Black Lives Matter protesters.
While Police Commissioner James O’Neill defended the practice — which was laid bare in a series of department emails disclosed Thursday — Hizzoner said he found it concerning because the activists “are not a security risk in any way shape or form.”
“I’m not really gonna go into what technology we have and we don’t have, but we do not interfere with the constitutionally protected activities,” O’Neill told Brian Lehrer on WNYC. “We’re looking to building trust with all 8.6 million New Yorkers. That wouldn’t be the way to do it.”
The nearly 700 emails released in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit show undercover NYPD coordinated with “sources” to infiltrate Black Lives Matter protests from November 2014 to January 2015 and keep tabs on organizers.
The spy job happened under the watch of former commissioner Bill Bratton, during de Blasio’s first year in office, but Hizzoner claimed the surveillance was unnecessary and he didn’t order it.
“I’m concerned. I have not seen details but I want to confirm publicly that Black Lives Matter is a non-violent political movement that I don’t always agree with but I think is trying to achieve important goals and has played a productive role in this country,” he said.
“I have no understanding of why there would need to be any monitoring. So i will of course wait for the details but they are not a security risk in any way shape or form. So I don’t know why that monitoring would have taken place.”