azi paybarah

Surveying the 2013 candidates:

One group has conspicuously quiet about the whole thing: the Democrats hoping to replace Bloomberg when he leaves office after 2013.

In the absence of public statements from any of them, I reached out to the candidates to get their responses.

Their reactions were measured, ranging from qualified expressions of concern with the department’s execution of the program to outright support.

A spokesman for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has a close working relationship with the mayor, said there has been, so far, no evidence of any wrongdoing by the NYPD.

“Regarding the NYPD’s actions in New Jersey and other jurisdictions, unless we know that laws were broken or someone’s civil liberties were violated it is difficult to judge police techniques without knowing the specifics of the case,” said Josh Isay, a spokesman for Quinn.

Other prospective candidates expressed concern for possible civil-rights violations by the NYPD in the course of gathering intelligence from members of Muslim groups and institutions, but none called for a halt to the program.

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“The surveillance and random checking of American citizens is an extremely complex issue that cannot be reduced to a sound bite,” Allon said in a lengthy email. “‘Profiling’ is a loaded term that has somehow replaced ‘probable cause’ in law enforcement lexicon. We need to face realpolitik realities rather politically correct idealism. The people who attacked us 10 years ago and in 1993 were all Muslims. The few planned attacks that the NYPD has thwarted since then were also plotted by young Muslims … If you randomly stop a fidgeting 20-year-old Muslim on the street or on the subway, this should be called `probable cause’ rather than `profiling.’”

Allon also wrote: “If you stop an 80-year-old grandmother on the street, that should be called `unnecessary random checks’ that not only wastes our valuable law enforcement manpower but infringes on the civil liberties of us all.”