Ray Kelly: 'I think profiling is just nuts'
Briefing: Ray Kelly. Azi Paybarah via flickr
6:37 pm Mar. 8, 2012
Malcolm Gladwell once asked New York Police Department commissioner Ray Kelly about fighting terrorism. Kelly, a former Marine and beat cop, was characteristically blunt.
"You think that terrorists aren't aware of how easy it is to be characterized by ethnicity?" Kelly said. “Look at the 9/11 hijackers. They came here. They shaved. They went to topless bars. They wanted to blend in. They wanted to look like they were part of the American dream. These are not dumb people."
Kelly went on to say, "Could a terrorist dress up as a Hasidic Jew and walk into the subway, and not be profiled? Yes. I think profiling is just nuts.”
Speaking at Fordham Law School this weekend, Kelly addressed some recent criticism about the practices of the department's Demographics Unit, which as the Associated Press has revealed, has focused its surveillance actives on Muslim groups.
The department didn't set out to focus on any particular ethnic or religious group, Kelly said: "Undercover investigations begin with leads, and we go where the leads take us."
Some Links:
2012
To win, Obama has to remind voters how bad the economy almost got. [Greg Sargent]
"She's going to have to justify after 20 years of nothing, why she should remain in office," Councilman Erik Dilan said in announcing his campaign against Rep. Nydia Velazquez. [Aaron Short]
No one running for State Senator Greg Ball's seat has ever heard of taking the high road. [Jon Campbell]
Redistricting
A local news outlet wonders if Rep. Engel will be their subject again. [CoopCityNews.blogspot.com]
The Dominican American National Roundtable doesn't like how a judge drew congressional lines. [Jeff Mays]
NYPD
The NYPD is more than a year late issuing a report from their Crime Reporting Review Panel and is now not responding to inquiries from the chairman of the public safety committee. [Al Baker]
FDNY
A judge said the city may have to pay $128 million for unfair hiring practices that could have denied 300 blacks jobs in the department between 1999 and 2002. [John Marzulli and Tracy Connor]
Education
A public school teacher blogs the indignities of co-location. [Anna Phillips]
Images
Inspired by The Artist. [YourFDNY]
The visuals aids of City Hall. [Kristen Artz]
Lancman and Moya help announce Immigrant Workers' Rights Awareness Week. [Assemblyman Rory Lancman]
