With the Associated Press' reports about the NYPD's large-scale surveillance of Muslims in not just New York City but across the Eastern seaboard came the revelation that the NYPD has been spying on Muslims in Newark. That upset Newark Mayor Cory Booker as well as NJ Governor Chris Christie, who spoke out against the NYPD last night.
On his "Ask the Governor" program, Christie fumed, "I hope that almost 11 years past 9/11, we are not going to go back to those days because no one is omniscient... I don’t know if this NYPD action was born out of arrogance, or out of paranoia, or out of both but we’re taking a real good, strong hard look at it from a policy perspective at the governor’s office level."
Christie, who was U.S. Attorney when the spying began in 2007, says he doesn't recall being briefed about the operation and was sarcastic, "Well, because he’s Ray Kelly, what are you going to do. He’s all knowing, all seeing." He added, "I had federal jurisdiction [as a U.S. Attorney], so we could go anywhere. This is the New York Police Department. I know they think their jurisdiction is the world. Their jurisdiction is New York City. My concern is this kind of obsession that the NYPD seems to have that they’re the masters of the universe."
