Sen. Chuck Schumer stood tall for the NYPD this week as it took a politically motivated pummeling for gathering intelligence in New Jersey on potential Islamist extremist threats.
That took guts.
Bravo, Chuck.
Terrorists aren’t deterred by the Hudson River. After all, the truck used in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was rented in Jersey City — and the blind-sheik mastermind of that plot and nine of the 9/11 hijackers at one point lived in Jersey.
So why wouldn’t the NYPD bring its unmatched skills to bear in Newark, whose overmatched police department is simply incapable of monitoring threats as they develop far out of sight?
NYPD officers have also gone online and tracked public comments from Muslim student groups at Rutgers and elsewhere — so the department is being smeared as racist.
Responded Chuck on Thursday: “I have a lot of faith in Commissioner [Ray] Kelly. He’s very smart, he’s very capable and he doesn’t have a bigoted bone in his body.
“From what I’m told, the only surveillance that has come about has come about from public records, things that are online, that anyone can see.”
Precisely.
But things are not at all well in Jersey, where Sen. Bob Menendez has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder noting his “grave concerns” and asking him to launch an investigation of the NYPD.
Funny — we don’t recall Menendez complaining when the NYPD’s intel unit helped snare Mahmood Alessa and Carlos Almonte — two would-be terrorists from North Bergen — back in 2010, as the duo attempted to fly off for terror training.
New Jersey clearly benefits from the wealth and opportunity provided by New York, but extremists are little interested in Menendez’s roost: The larger prize, the bigger target, will always be New York.
The NYPD’s exemplary work speaks for itself, but attaboys never hurt.
Good for you, Sen. Schumer — and keep it up.