The NYPD are back to their old tricks. It was revealed earlier this week that the force, along with the Newark Police department, aided in the surveillance of Muslim residents in Brick City.
STORY: Not In My City! Cory Booker Condemns NYPD Spying On Newark Muslims
The NYPD conducted widespread surveillance of Muslims in Newark and monitored Muslim student groups at Rutgers University and other Northeast colleges across the tri-state area.
STORY: Brick City! NYPD Spied On Muslims In Newark
In the wake of the latest spy-gate scandal, Newark Mayor Cory Booker talked with GlobalGrind about the recent surveillance operations, his thoughts on Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Gov. Chris Christie’s veto of the same-sex marriage bill and the death of Whitney Houston.
Take a look at our exclusive interview with the Mayor of Brick City, Cory Booker!
GlobalGrind: Why do you think the NYPD didn’t tell you about the surveillance operation going on in Newark? You’re the Mayor and you should know these things.
Mayor Corey Booker: I don’t feel like they hid it from me. I feel like they didn’t think it was important to bring to the attention of my administration.
I think this is something that is obvious that the NYPD does when they’re investigating and trying to take preventive actions against terrorism. It seems like they go wherever their investigations or concerns lead and I’ve seen evidence from their 9/11 attacks to other things.
We live in one area and one region and one of the planes from 9/11 took off from Newark and there have been other interrelated webs of problems.
The notification issue is not one that I would presume is a regular course of action for them. My concern really lies just with my own citizenry and I don’t want anyone in Newark to ever feel they will be subject to any police surveillance or any other spying methods.
I don’t want them to feel they will be subject to those things for no cause beyond their ethnicity, faith or religion.
As far as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, how do you feel they’re handling the situation with the surveillance and the Muslims?
Honestly, I haven’t been paying attention to the story from last year. I don’t pay as close attention as you might imagine, seeing as I am across the river.
I’ve known Mayor Bloomberg for years and he’s a friend and I’ve always called him one of the mentor mayors. I know how seriously in past conversations he takes the security of New York.
Undoubtedly, New York is looked at by many around the globe as one of the proactive cities in preventing terrorism and those are all good things.
My concern continues to come back to my core belief that no Newark resident should be subject to spying on, about their race or religion.
Switching gears here for a minute, as far as Governor Christie, what do you think of his veto on the same-sex marriage bill?
He and I kindly just disagree on this issue, I’m disappointed. We see there are two different classes of citizenship in the U.S.
There are people who have certain rights and privileges accorded to them by their government, while others aren’t afforded the same rights by their government based on their sexual orientation. I don’t think our government should be treating people differently under the law just because of their sexual orientation.
It’s opposite of who we say we are as a nation; liberty and Justice for all, not just for people who are heterosexual.
The whole thing bothers me, but let’s not make Chris Christie the big villain here.
The reality is, we live in a nation where some in our government don’t believe in same-sex marriage. We live in a nation where our former Gov. Jon Corzine and his legislature didn’t pass it, we could have had this passed a long time ago, but we didn’t do it.
The reality is, justice has been denied time and time again. I believe we in this state should be working a lot harder to assure that we are a state that exalts the basic rights of liberty of every one of our residents.
Staying on Chris Christie for a little bit, he received some criticism for lowering the Jersey flag half-mast for Whitney Houston’s funeral.
Some believe it should only be lowered for police or military service men and women. What do you think?
Talking about that is problematic to me, because you lowered the flag for Clarence Clemons, the legendary saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. There was no controversy when they did it for him, so why suddenly is there a big issue around Whitney?
He said he was doing it for artists of significant import, why all of a sudden does it have a big issue around one and not others?
As the mayor of the city she was born and raised in, she has made incredible contributions, global contributions to art and culture.
I think the Governor who has honored other artists has stayed consistent and was courageous through his consistency.
Thank you for taking time out to chat with us.
Thank you and have a nice day.
