Excerpt:
What a contrast. While the editors of the New York Times were setting in type their editorial attacking the New York Police Department for spying on Muslims, Commissioner Kelly was getting a standing ovation from the alumni of Fordham University Law School. The Times editorial — called "Surveillance, Security and Civil Liberties" — bought into the campaign that has been levied against the NYPD by the Associated Press, which, the Times asserted, "has exposed constitutionally suspect surveillance of Muslims in New York, New Jersey, Long Island and beyond." But the lawyers, judges, and law enforcement professionals who stood and applauded Mr. Kelly clearly thought otherwise.
According to the Times, police records have been unearthed that "noticeably lack any apparent link to suspected criminal activity, or any obvious payoff for public safety." It reports that the AP disclosed that, as the Times put it, "police officers systematically monitored the Web sites and blogs of Muslim student groups at N.Y.U., Columbia, Yale, Rutgers and a dozen other colleges." It faults Mayor Bloomberg and other leaders for backing Commissioner Kelly. The editorial lacked any mention of Mr. Kelly's speech at Fordham, even though he made there his most detailed defense yet of the department's intelligence work.