Statements For, Against NYPD’s Muslim Monitoring

NEW YORK (AP) — A chronology of some statements by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg about the New York City Police Department’s monitoring of Muslims, along with criticism of the program, which has been exposed in a series of reports by The Associated Press:

—Aug. 25, 2011. Bloomberg:

“In the end the NYPD’s first job is prevention, and I think they’ve done a very good job of that. … The law is pretty clear about what’s the requirement, and I think they’ve followed the law.”

—Aug. 31, Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y.:

“There were those who, during World War II, said, ‘Good, I’m glad they’re interning all the Japanese-Americans who are living here. … But we look back on that period with disdain.”

—Sept. 8, Bloomberg:

“If there is a community where the crime rate is very high, to not put more cops in that community is ridiculous. If you want to look for cases of measles, you’ll find a lot more of them among young people. That’s not targeting young people to go see whether they have measles or not.”

—Oct. 17, Bloomberg:

“We live in a dangerous world. There are people trying to kill us. And if the CIA can help us I’m all for getting any information they have and then letting the police department use it.”

—Nov. 8. civil rights lawyer Judith Berkan:

“I think if the government treats you different because you’re from a particular part of the world, even if the surveillance is in a public place, it might violate the constitution. … But it’s not a favorable judicial climate for me to make those kinds of arguments today.”

—Dec. 30, Bloomberg:

“We have great race relations here. The communities, whether they’re Muslim or Jewish or Christian or Hindu or Buddhist or whatever, all contribute to this city. We don’t target any one of them. We don’t target any neighborhood.”

—Dec. 30, Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin:

“I would be hurt if it was my faith group that was in this situation or predicament. … I see it as the mayor choosing one faith-based group to target.”

—Feb. 21, 2012 Yale President Richard Levin:

“Police surveillance based on religion, nationality, or peacefully expressed political opinions is antithetical to the values of Yale, the academic community, and the United States.”

—Feb. 21, Bloomberg:

“I don’t know why keeping the country safe is antithetical to the values of Yale.”

—Feb. 22, Newark Mayor Cory Booker:

“If anyone in my police department had known this was a blanket investigation of individuals based on nothing but their religion, that strikes at the core of our beliefs and my beliefs very personally, and it would have merited a far sterner response.”

—Feb. 23, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne:

“In this particular case, (the department) did notify Newark officials, before and after, and … a Newark liaison officer was assigned to the NYPD personnel when they were in there.”

—Feb. 23, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel:

“We don’t do that in Chicago, and we’re not going to do that.”

—Feb. 24, Bloomberg:

“We’re not going to make the mistakes we made after the 1993 bombing. … We cannot let our guard down again. We cannot slack in our vigilance. The threat was real. The threat is real. The threat is not going away.”