NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly Urged to Resign After Police Conceal Role in Anti-Muslim Documentary

[Jefferson23]

January 27, 2012

Democracy Now

Representatives from the New York City Muslim community, together with local ethnic and interfaith groups, gathered at City Hall Thursday calling for the resignation of New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly and police spokesperson Paul Browne after it was revealed an anti-Muslim film, "The Third Jihad," was screened to nearly 1,500 officers during training. After initial denials, the NYPD admitted the officers were shown the film in training and that Kelly gave the filmmakers a 90-minute interview. Kelly has now apologized. The controversy comes at a time when relations between the police and the Muslim community are already strained due to recent revelations that the police department has operated a secret surveillance program targeting Muslim neighborhoods. We speak with Arab-American activist Linda Sarsour, who was honored last month at the White House as a "Champion of Change." [includes rush transcript]

SNIP* AMY GOODMAN: When The Village Voice's Tom Robbins first reported on the film a year ago, the New York Police Department had claimed it had only been shown a couple of times and that the department did not participate in its making. But earlier this week, the police department admitted nearly 1,500 officers were shown the film in training and that the New York Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, gave the filmmakers a 90-minute interview. Part of Kelly's interview appears in the film.

COMMISSIONER RAY KELLY: Our nightmare scenario is a nuclear detonation. And the second down, the second rung from that, you might say, is a dirty bomb.

JUAN GONZALEZ: On Wednesday, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly issued a rare apology for appearing in the film, which was made by the Clarion Fund. The group describes itself as a, quote, "non-profit organization that produces and distributes documentaries on the threats of Radical Islam." The Clarion Fund is best known for its film Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West, which was distributed to 28 million people in swing states ahead of the 2008 elections.

in full: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/27/nypd_commissioner_ray_kelly_urged_to

[orpupilofnature57]

1. An abuse of position at very least.

[gopiscrap]

2. Ray Kelly is a national embarrassment and

his son is either a rapist at worst or a misogynistic prick at best.

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. scary - such outrageous behavior by a police commissioner

imagine a police commissiner of America's greatest city can participate in making such a film and then promoting it as educational material among young officers:

the description that Tom Robbins gave a year—more than a year ago now of this film, it is amazing. He says, "It is 72 minutes of gruesome footage of bombing carnage, frenzied crowds, burning American flags, flaming churches, and seething mullahs. All of this is sandwiched between a collection of somber talking heads informing us that, while we were sleeping, the international [Islamist] Jihad that wrought these horrors has set up shop here and is quietly going about its deadly business. This is the final drive in a 1,400-year-old bid for Muslim world domination," the film says. "And while we may think [there are some] perfectly reasonable Muslim (leaders and organizations here in the U.S.), that is just more sucker bait sent our way." It’s astonishing that the police department would have any kind of connection, and less more, Kelly being interviewed but then showing this film to police officers.[/blockquote]

the interview on Democracy Now is well worth watching:

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/27/nypd_commissioner_ray_kelly_urged_to