New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he found a report of NYPD surveillance operation targeting Muslims in Newark "disturbing."
Christie said he doesn't recall ever being briefed about the spying in 2007 while he was the state's top federal prosecutor. He said the NYPD would not have jurisdiction in the state unless itw as working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Newark or another agency.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker and his top police official say the city was misled by the NYPD and never would have authorized such wholesale spying on Muslims if they had known about it. Booker called the reports "deeply disturbing."
“If this is in fact what happened, it is deeply disturbing to me and strikes against my fundamental beliefs as an American,” Booker said in a statement released Wednesday. “If this is indeed what transpired, it is, I believe, a clear infringement on the core liberties of our citizenry.”
Booker, a rising star in the Democratic Party, said he was offended to read a 2007 NYPD report that cataloged all his city's mosques and Muslim businesses.
Senator Bob Menendez wants federal authorities to investigate the matter. He sent a letter on Thursday to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and CIA Director David Petraeus saying he was concerned about the recent revelations and asking whether appropriate procedures and protocols were followed with regard to informing New Jersey law enforcement officials.
He's the first U.S. senator to make such a request, although 34 members of Congress have asked DOJ for a similar investigation.
Police Director Samuel DeMaio said the NYPD simply asked local police to show them around the city. He says Newark officers had no idea it was part of the NYPD's effort to build databases on where Muslims eat, work, shop and pray.
DeMaio says it's not activity Newark would ever do and he called it troubling.
Garry McCarthy, then-director of the police department and the current Chicago Police Department’s Superintendent, said through his spokeswoman that he was informed of the NYPD’s operation as a matter of professional courtesy.
No Newark police officers were a part of the operation, he added.
A spokesperson for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said McCarthy didn't talk about the NYPD operation to spy on Muslims in New Jersey's largest city before he was hired to lead the Chicago force. On Thursday he added that Chicago would not conduct activities like the NYPD operation and that he is "1,000 percent" behind McCarthy.
A report prepared by the NYPD described the surveillance as a joint operation.
The NYPD photographed mosques and eavesdropped on conversations in businesses frequented by Muslims in Newark, according to the Associated Press.
Christie told a news conference in Palisades Park that the state attorney general is investigating the report.