An anti-Muslim movie was screened to New York Police Department personnel “on a continuous loop” for between three months and one year of training, according to NYPD documents obtained by the Brennan Center for Justice.
An NYPD spokesman said last year that the Clarion Fund’s “The Third Jihad,” a film which features an Islamic flag flying over the White House, was screened “a couple of times when officers were filling out paperwork before the actual coursework began” and characterized it as a “wacky film.”
Documents obtained by the Brennan Center show that at least 1,489 police officers saw the film.
As the New York Times reports, the video allegedly came from someone with the Department of Homeland Security, thought DHS said the film was never authorized:
How the film came to be used in police training, and even for how long, was not clear. An undated memorandum from the department’s commanding officer for specialized training noted that an employee of the federal Department of Homeland Security handed the DVD to the New York police in January 2010. Since then, this officer said, the video was shown continuously “during the sign-in, medical and administrative orientation process.” A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said it was never used in its curriculum, and might have come from a contractor.
The Clarion Fund was also behind the distribution of 28 million copies of the anti-Muslim film “Obsession” just before the 2008 election.
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.
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