Timothy Birdnow

Three New York Muslim women swccessfully sued over being forced to unveil their faces for mug shots after being arrested.

According to Fox News:

"Three lawsuits were settled Monday in Brooklyn federal court stemming from the NYPD policy of photographing people wearing religious head coverings, the New York Daily News reported. The three women settled for $60,000 each.

Some cases date to 2012, when a high school girl – identified as "G.E.” – was arrested after a brawl with two other girls whom she thought spread gossip about her.

G.E. was initially brought to a local police station and was told to take off her hijab. G.E. refused and was taken to a secluded room where a female police officer took her photo outside the presence of any men, the Daily News reported.

But at Brooklyn Central Booking the police could not accommodate the girl’s religious needs, telling her that there were not any female officers available and that the camera is in a fixed spot, thus the mugshot could not be taken in a private room.

The girl alleged that a male officer then took her photo without a hijab, making her feel "exposed, violated and distraught” as she was forced to be without the Islamic garb for 20 minutes while male officers and prisoners looked at her."

End excerpts.

Well, don't get into fistfights if you want to wear a hijab, is my view. Execting privacy after being arrested is unreasonable. There are numerous instances of, say, Hasidic Jews in prison forced to shave. Asking a woman who is under arrest to remove a covering of her entire face is hardly unreasonable = and if there are no women around to take the photo she is going to have to have a man do it. Get over it or go home.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:42 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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