Kelly’s heroes
Last Updated: 11:34 PM, May 24, 2012
Posted: May 25, 2012
The NYPD’s ongoing effort to keep New Yorkers safe was back in the news yesterday on two significant fronts:
* A three-month investigation by New Jersey state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa reportedly has concluded that the department broke no laws in its surveillance activities of Muslim groups and businesses in the Garden State.
* And Mayor Bloomberg gave The New York Times a dusting for an editorial demanding that City Hall “learn from Philadelphia” and adopt that city’s changes in its stop-and-frisk policy.
The New Jersey probe, the Star-Ledger reported, found there were no violations of state criminal or civil law, nor were there “illegal wiretaps or search and seizures.”
Warzer Jaff
Ray Kelly
“Based on what we saw, their conduct was permissible,” said one official in the AG’s office — precisely what NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has been saying all along.
As part of its admittedly aggressive approach to anti-terrorism, the NYPD conducted a widespread intelligence operation in New Jersey, especially in Newark.
Despite initial claims to the contrary by the Associated Press — which conducted a yearlong campaign to depict the NYPD effort as a wholesale civil-rights violation — it turns out that state officials were aware of the “secret” operation.
Still, the NYPD and Jersey law enforcement have reportedly agreed to “strengthen the lines of communication,” including regular exchanges of counterterrorist information. That can only help both.
As for stop-and-frisk, Bloomberg had sharp words for the Times — which all but accused the NYPD of conducting race-based illegal stops.
“Their advice to me . . . is to follow Philadelphia’s model and enter into a consent decree that would inhibit the NYPD’s ability to fight crime,” said the mayor. “I just have to wonder what kind of world they’re living in.”
As Bloomberg noted, under that consent decree “murder is up 10 percent” in Philadelphia, which “has the highest murder rate of any of the 10 largest cities.”
“In contrast,” he added, New York “is the safest big city in the country, and is on track to have the lowest number of murders in our city’s history.
“Why would any rational person want to trade what we have here for the situation in Philadelphia?”
Thank Commissioner Kelly and New York’s Finest for the new safety record.
Which is why, Bloomberg vowed, “We will not turn the Police Department over to the NYCLU.”
Indeed, not. Given the early field, the next mayor will take care of that.