Jews Say No! and JVP condemn support for NYPD chief Ray Kelly

(Photo: Ellen Davidson)

Yesterday, I reported on the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) support for the NYPD’s spying program and the Anti-Defamation League’s silence on the issue.

Today, Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews Say No! have a strong statement out condemning the support NYPD chief Ray Kelly has received. Read it:

Jews Say No! and Jewish Voice for Peace speak for many Jewish New Yorkers in condemning the Jewish Community Relations Council’s (JCRC’s) support for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. The president, executive vice president and CEO, and associate executive director of the JCRC of New York recently published a statement in The New York Jewish Week called “The Case for Ray Kelly.” They have nothing but praise for Commissioner Kelly.

As the JCRC is having its gala dinner this evening, Jews Say No! and Jewish Voice for Peace want to know where the JCRC’s outrage is

*about an NYPD program—under Commissioner Kelly’s watch—that targets people based on their religion and ethnicity?
*about the NYPD’s spying on mosques and Muslim-owned restaurants and other businesses?
*about the NYPD’s violating the civil rights of the Muslim community?
*about the NYPD’s infiltrating and surveilling Muslim student groups at colleges in five Northeast states?
*about a Mayor and a Police Commissioner who insist that they have not wronged New York City’s Muslim community?
*about a Police Commissioner who is a featured interviewee in a rabidly Islamophobic film, The Third Jihad—a fact he conveniently “forgot?”
*about an NYPD that showed this anti-Muslim propaganda film to nearly 1,500 police officers during their training?

We stand with the Muslim community and with a wide range of Muslim and other community leaders who have condemned the NYPD for its targeting and surveillance of the Muslim community and called for Ray Kelly’s resignation.

Meanwhile, the NYPD spying reportedly continues to this day–including outside the city, like in Buffalo.