Sen. [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] infuriated the New York Police Department Tuesday after he said police need to step up patrols in predominantly Muslim neighborhoods.
Following the terrorist attacks in Brussels, Cruz said, “We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.”
“It is good law enforcement to focus on where threats are emanating from, and anywhere where there is a locust of radicalization, where there is an expending presence of radical Islamic terrorism, we need law enforcement resources directed there, national security resources directed there,” added the Texas senator.
Both New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD chief Bill Bratton addressed these comments at a press conference Tuesday.
“To paint an entire community with that brush is absolutely counter-productive. It’s immoral and doesn’t conform with American values,” said de Blasio.
Bratton added, “I would remind the senator he lives in the United States of America, and the statements he made today is why he’s not going to become president of this country.”
An NYPD spokesman also tweeted out, “Hey, [Ted Cruz] are our nearly 1k Muslim officers a ‘threat’ too? It’s hard to imagine a more incendiary, foolish statement.”
A member of Cruz’s national security team, Andrew McCarthy, responded: “[Ted Cruz] did not say all Muslims were a threat & he talked about securing their communities from radicals. NYPD sounds like CAIR.”
CAIR in fact did respond to Cruz and used words similar to de Blasio. “Cruz offers the American people an easy — but unconstitutional and counterproductive — answer to a complex problem.”