SurveillanceTed Cruz: Cancelled NYPD’s Muslim surveillance program could prevent terrorist attacks
Presidential candidate Ted Cruz criticized New York Mayor Bill de Blasio for shutting down the NYPD’s Muslim surveillance program. In the wake of the Brussels terrorist attacks, Cruz. suggested that to prevent such attacks in the United States, the police should patrol Muslim communities more heavily – and offered the NYPD program as an example of how such surveillance should be done. In 2014, the New York Police Department acknowledged that its surveillance program did not lead to any terror investigations. Police were not able to find a single lead.
In the wake of the Brussels terrorist attacks, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who now campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination, has suggested that to prevent such attacks in the United States, the police should patrol Muslim communities more heavily.
In a CNN interview, Cruz lambasted New York Mayor Bill de Blasio for shutting down surveillance of the city’s Muslim communities, even though the police and federal law enforcement bot admitted that the surveillance program failed to spot even a single terrorist, or generate a single lead for police.
“We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized,” Cruz said in response to the attacks in Belgium. “We need to secure the southern border to prevent terrorist infiltration. And we need to execute a coherent campaign to utterly destroy Isis.”
ABC News reports that Cruz suggested that the methods used to monitor Muslims in the New York area – including planting informants in mosques and infiltrating Muslim student groups — should be considered across the country.
New York Police Commission Bill Bratton criticized Cruz for his comments on Muslims, saying he took “great offense” from them.
“The statements he made today is why he’s not going to become president of this country,” Bratton said. “We don’t need a president that doesn’t respect the values that form the foundation of this country.”
In 2014, the New York Police Department acknowledged that its surveillance program did not lead to any terror investigations. Police were not able to find a single lead.
“I never made a lead from rhetoric that came from a Demographics report, and I’m here since 2006,” said NYPD Assistant Chief Thomas Gulati in an AP report. The Demographics Unit was the secret team that spied on Muslims communities in the city.
Mayor de Blasio ended the surveillance after he took office in 2014. The NYPD earlier this year settled two cases related to the surveillance.
