Rep. Peter King
wants to protect tipsters who report suspicious activity from lawsuits against those who feel they were wrongly ratted out. The Republican congressman and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee believes that the liability protection for citizens who come to the authorities with information should be expanded beyond "passenger transportation." The men who reported the Times Square bombing plot were vendors on the street, and wouldn't be protected under the current law. King is pushing for the protection in light of a lawsuit brought by six Muslim imams against their accusers and the airline, who were wrongfully ejected off of a flight. They later dropped their suit against the passenger who reported them and settled out of court.
Manhattan U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler finds serious fault with King's proposal, saying, "The rhetoric can be prettied up…but the message is the same: that law enforcement and the public need to target Muslims in order to keep us safe." King faced charges of racism after holding McCarthy-esque hearings on "Muslim radicalization" this spring. A rep from the Muslim Public Affairs Council tells the Daily News that King's bill needs to be "more explicit" to prevent tipsters from reporting tips based on pure bias. Currently the law prevents protected free speech, like in the case of an Iraqi man who was forced to change his shirt with Arabic on it, from being used in terror databases.
