A Painful Anniversary; A Day of Resolve

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Friend,   Last Friday, Americans came together to remember the lives tragically lost on September 11, 2001. As first responders like my father toiled at Ground Zero, a toxic cloud of bigotry spread far beyond the smoking pile. Despite recent efforts to revise that painful history, the truth is that those attacks ushered in a wave of hatred and fear. I lost my dad in 2012, the end of a long battle against a cancer that he first breathed in at the World Trade Center. So too has our surveillance culture metastasized: jingoistic laws like the USA PATRIOT Act and USA FREEDOM Act expanded to encompass ever-growing surveillance of Muslim communities, tearing apart more families than I can fathom. Here, in New York, a “demographics unit” sought to map out where our Muslim neighbors lived, worked, studied, and prayed. America’s racist surveillance dates back centuries, but 9/11 inspired its modern form. From the birth of “Homeland Security” to the NYPD’s rogue Intelligence Bureau, our surveillance state is shaped by those horrific attacks. The cost of our panic continues to this day, as police systemically target Muslim New Yorkers, immigrant families, communities of color, and many more. That is why, at S.T.O.P., this painful anniversary is far more than just a day to look back. It is also a moment to gather our resolve and rededicate ourselves to the mission of dismantling the systems of mass surveillance we created that day.   With thanks, Sam Van Doran Development Director Listen To Our Podcast! Our Team Share Tweet Forward