The New York City Police Department sent spies to infiltrate Islamic youth groups and mosques, but also deployed them to such organizations as Occupy Wall Street and Critical Mass, the people who advocate for the rights of bicyclists, according to a report in The New York Times. In the years since the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington DC, NYPD saw a need to covertly collect information on Occupy Sandy, a group that handed out food and other supplies to victims of last year's disaster.

The Times reports that there was even an undercover cop riding with the crew of motorcyclists who attacked the driver of an SUV a week ago. The officer, who was arrested for allegedly participating in the attack, also had posted to Twitter as a pseudo member of Occupy Sandy. The paper draws a parallel between the expansion of New York's spying to that of the federal government's.