Excerpt:
New York City police did not violate New Jersey laws when they conducted surveillance of Muslim businesses, mosques and student groups, Gov. Chris Christie's administration said Thursday following a three-month review, a finding that angered Muslim leaders who had sought a clampdown on the cross-border police operations.
The conclusion by Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa, a Christie appointee asked by the governor to look into the spying, means New Jersey Muslims have no state recourse to stop the New York Police Department from infiltrating student groups, videotaping mosque-goers or collecting their license plate numbers as they pray.
Such operations were part of a widespread NYPD program to collect intelligence on Muslim communities both inside New York and beyond. Undercover officers and informants eavesdropped in Muslim cafes and monitored sermons, even when there was no evidence of a crime. The result was that many innocent business owners, students and others were cataloged in police files.