By: Senior Staff writers, Aya Abdelmoamen, Ahmed Jaradat, Anastasia LaDouceur, Manolo Morales, Navita Nauth, Taja Whitted and Neka Williams

On Oct. 2, 19-year-old Shamiur Rahman posted a status update on Facebook, confessing that he was a spy among John Jay’s Muslim Students Association. He was paid to report back any information he collected to the New York Police Department.

According to the Associated Press, which reported on Rahman’s Facebook confession, Rahman was tasked with “baiting” Muslims with a “create and capture” strategy.

Essentially, Rahman’s job was to provoke conversations surrounding jihad and revolution. He recorded the responses and sent it to the NYPD. Ossama Ayesh, treasurer of the Students for Justice in Palestine club at John Jay, said, “during the MSA events, [Rahman] was making remarks against the speakers of the events. He was basically questioning Islam itself.”

Observers consider this incident a symptom of something bigger going on in New York and, more broadly, in the United States, one that raises the question of whether the balance between freedom and safety has swayed too far from freedom.

Attempts to reach the Police Departmnt, including Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Paul Browne, were not successful, but in an article by the Gothamist, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said the highest levels of the department must first authorize the NYPD before they attend any events sponsored by a student group. This procedure follows the Handschu protocol, which was revised after 9/11 and “essentially states that the requirement for investigation of political or free speech activity requires ‘information which indicated the possibility of criminal activity.’”

John Jay is not the only CUNY school the NYPD has placed informants in to report on Muslim student organizations. Last year, the Associated Press reported on similar incidents at Baruch College, City College of New York, Hunter College, LaGuardia Community College, Queens College, Brooklyn College and the CUNY School of Law.

The AP has spent years reporting on NYPD informant activities at Muslim events on and off college campuses. Police departments typically use informants when they have a specific target and have evidence of crime taking place. But in this instance, as well as many others, there was no specific target or reason why the police needed an informant at John Jay.

John Jay President Jeremy Travis told The Sentinel he was aware of Brooklyn College’s incident last year, but “nothing came to my attention about anything going on at John Jay,” until the students from the MSA brought it to Travis’ attention when they saw Rahman’s post on Facebook.

“I know that the general rule of thumb is that in order to have this sort of undercover work there should be sort of criminal premise for the use of an informant like this, and I don’t know as I said in my statement (to the college community) if that was true here,” Travis said.

According to President Travis, Rahman attended Bronx Community College in 2010. Because he had a CUNY ID, that may have made it easier for him to access events on the John Jay campus.

“I think from the students’ point of view that one of the hardest things for them to sort of come to terms with was that it was somebody that they knew,” Travis said.

After revealing that he was an informant for the NYPD, Rahman told the MSA his reason for monitoring them.

“He told us that there is a brother-Ali Abdul Karim-who we had at one of our events and he wanted to see what [Karim] was going to say,” said Shahrir Raafi, 21, a junior and a member of the MSA. “I don’t think it’s anything we did specifically.”

Talha Shahbaz, president of the Muslim Students Association, said he did not expect this because, to him, Rahman did not seem like a spy or someone that was capable of doing such a job. “We were hurt. We considered him a brother,” he said.

The students in the MSA wanted to help Rahman to better his life because Rahman gave them the impression that he needed help. “We were basically trying to get him surrounded by good company,” Shahbaz explained.

Shahbaz does not worry this situation will affect his future. “The only reason we oppose this is not because of fear, but because it’s illegal and unconstitutional,” he said.

Dr. Cornel West, a well-known scholar, philosopher and activist, was at John Jay on Dec. 4 for the event “Activism in the Age of Mass Incarceration.” Dr. West  told the Sentinel  that he compared the spying on Muslims to what happened to African Americans in the 1960s.

“The U.S. nation state has a long history of infiltrating different political groups and different communities and often times when they do infiltrate, they engage in arbitrary use of law,” West said.

Mark Naison, Professor and Chair of African and African American Studies at Fordham University, expressed outrage over the fact that the NYPD was spying on students without the consent of the college.

“The rights of individual citizens are being trampled on, on a regular basis by law enforcement and something needs to change,” Naison said. “There have been two different initiatives that gave law enforcement more power, technology and personnel.” The initiatives he is referring to were the War On Drugs and the War On Terror.

Some observers say the problem rests with Commissioner Kelly, the longest-serving leader in the history of the department. They describe him as someone who is drunk on his own power, believing he is above the law.

“Ray Kelly is a great danger to the civil liberties of the people in this city and country,” Naison said.

Kelly could not be reached for comment, but in a Feb. 27 report, The Associated Press quoted him as saying, “Not everybody is going to be happy with everything the police department does, that’s the nature of our business. But our primary mission, our primary goal is to keep this city safe, to save lives. That’s what we’re engaged in doing.”

Professor Eugene O’Donnell, in the Law and Science Department, was an NYPD officer in Brooklyn and received 14 department awards in his career. He has written textbook chapters on police civilian review and minority-police relationships and is also a contributor to the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement.

He said John Jay has had a long relationship with the NYPD, and the majority of students go on to be NYPD officers or federal agents. Still, he said, there will sometimes be conflict between the college and the department.

“It’s our job to educate for this to be a place of learning and it’s their job to protect the city and it’s their job to do that constitutionally. So there is going to be some tension,” O’Donnell said. “You want the police to be trying to do as much as they can legally, so we don’t necessarily have to have a good relationship because sometimes our interests may not coincide.”

NYPD officers say informants can be useful and even important.

“What usually triggers an investigation that warrants an informant could be many things,” said Officer Reginal Pierre of the 11th Precinct. “For instance, if there was a drug bust and it leads to a drug trafficking ring, it would be beneficial to place an informant in that drug trafficking ring to make a bigger bust than what was originally needed.”

Some John Jay students agree with the need for informants – if there is evidence.

“As long as the NYPD has evidence when they send informants into places, I’m cool with it,” said Edwin Gracia, 20, a junior. “Because the way that I look at it, is if I’m in danger and other people are messing with my safety and my friends and families safety, then why not have someone undercover to catch a criminal before they harm us. NYPD gets paid to keep us safe, let them do their jobs.”

O’Donnell said he understands, but the Rahman case is different. “The problem is,” he said, “if you could say that before 9/11 if you could send a few informants into the right place, that you could’ve stopped 9/11, no one would’ve been opposed to that, but in this case, no.”

In response to the Rahman incident, John Jay’s Faculty Senate, which has 48 members and serves as the official voice of all professors, last month approved a resolution speaking out against the NYPD’s use of an informant on campus.

According to the Nov. 19 “Resolution of the Faculty Senate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice Opposing NYPD Surveillance of Muslim Students on John Jay’s Campus,” “such surveillance can create a chilling effect and can threaten the intellectual freedom and freedom of speech and assembly necessary for John Jay’s vibrant academic community to thrive.”

The resolution’s clauses explain that the Senate opposes these activities given that there’s no criminal activity. It calls upon CUNY Central Administration to make its opposition to on-campus surveillance, on Police Commissioner Kelly to end such surveillance. It also calls for the City Council to have hearings and pay attention to why the NYPD is targeting students and faculty, and lastly, to call on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to stand up for the rights of students at CUNY.

“I see this as an intrusion into the civil rights of students, and I know it has a chilling effect,” said Prof. Karen Kaplowitz, president of the Faculty Senate. “People begin to distrust others, and that is unhealthy, especially in a place of learning.”

Shahbaz, for one, said he forgives Rahman because he thinks Rahman regretted what he did. “There’s still some good in him,” Shahbaz said.

As for future MSA events, he said, “We will continue to host beneficial events, open to all the public, Muslim and Non-Muslims alike.”