ALBANY, N.Y. - Imagine you are enjoying a pizza with colleagues, when all of a sudden the restaurant is surrounded by police officers who swarm your table.
Then, police officers began asking you if you have been having conversations about missiles and possible terrorist threats.
This scenario actually happened to a UAlbany professor, Shamshad Ahmad, and a highly respected attorney, Steve Downs, in Albany a few weeks ago while they were hosting two visitors from downstate.
Downs and Ahmad describe how an enjoyable lunch at the pizzeria all of a sudden turned into an interrogation by police.
The officers confronted the men and quietly asked them and their two companions to step outside where they began to ask pointed questions, like have the men been having a conversation about things like missiles.
Albany Police explained that they had received a 911 call minutes before from a customer of the pizzeria who claimed he had overheard the foursome's conversation, and it sounded very suspicious.
Ahmad, Downs and their companions had, in fact, been talking about the subject of terrorism; Namely a highly publicized case eight years ago involving an Albany Imam, Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain, two men who are currently in prison. Their arrests came after the columniation of a fictitious terror plot conceived by the FBI.
Ahmad, who is the president of the Imam's Mosque, was talking about the case, something that quickly became clear to officers on the scene. One of the officers even recognized Ahmad as one of his former professors.
Police Chief Krokoff sat down with Ahmad and Downs and explained how his officers were compelled to respond, especially in this age where the motto is "if you see something, say something."
In the end, Ahmad and Downs said they have concluded this was not a case of racial or religious profiling.
Chief Krokoff tells NEWS10 the incident has not been shared with the FBI or any other law enforcement agency. Krokoff says he is very happy that everyone, down to the owner of the pizzeria, seemed to handle the incident with a good deal of professionalism and respect.
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