Ted Cruz proposal to reinstate NYPD's Muslim surveillance met with scorn

Bill de Blasio’s office says ‘now we know why everyone is calling Ted Cruz
a liar’ after Cruz attacks New York City mayor for rolling back controversial
program

Lauren Gambino in New York
Wednesday 23 March 2016 15.22 GMT

In the first substantive policy proposal by a presidential candidate since the attacks in Brussels on Tuesday, Senator Ted Cruz proposed reinstating an intrusive and controversial surveillance program that targeted Muslim neighborhoods in New York after the September 11 terrorists attacks.

Elaborating on his call to “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods”, Cruz said he would replicate the law enforcement policies of the former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg that allowed NYPD detectives to eavesdrop on Muslim Americans.

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“Now we know why everyone is calling Ted Cruz a liar,” said Monica Klein, a spokeswoman for the mayor, in reference to Trump’s preferred moniker for his Republican rival, “Lyin’ Ted”.

The NYPD also responded in force: “The statement (Ted Cruz) made today is why he won’t become president of this country,” the NYPD commissioner, Bill Bratton, said on Tuesday.

The programs, which were stopped in 2014 and have been the subject of a string of lawsuits, drew criticism from civil rights groups and even some security experts who argued that they sowed mistrust between law enforcement and Muslim American communities. Cruz called the program “successful” and lambasted the New York mayor for having “succumbed to unfounded criticisms” when he disbanded it.

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