After Orlando, Trump Criticizes De Blasio For Ending Controversial Muslim Surveillance Program
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Donald Trump is criticizing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for disbanding what the presumptive Republican presidential nominee calls one of the nation's best intelligence gathering systems in the nation.
His comments come in the wake of the massacre that left 49 victims dead at a gay nightclub in Florida. The gunman was also killed.
Trump believes better intelligence-gathering is needed to protect the United States.
"We need justice, we need vigilance, we need great intelligence gathering systems, which we don't have," Trump told "CBS This Morning." "We had them in New York City as an example, probably the best in the nation, and the new mayor just broke it all up and disbanded it, he thought it was inappropriate... that was unbelievable, that was one of the best of all systems. We need intelligence gathering like never before."
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Trump also said in Muslim communities people know who the "bad apples" are and don't report them.
"You'll find out very shortly that many people knew that he (the Orlando shooter) was bad, many people knew he had some kind of an idea for an attack. It happens almost all the time. We need much better intelligence," Trump added.
Trump was apparently referencing a controversial NYPD program that was ended by de Blasio. Under the program, plainclothes officers infiltrated Muslim student groups, put informants in mosques, monitored sermons and cataloged Muslims in New York who adopted new, Americanized surnames.
De Blasio said Monday that the program was counterproductive.
"The NYPD came to a decision that the previous policy of surveillance had been counterproductive, unfair to members of the Muslim community because we want them to be our partners in fighting terror," de Blasio told 1010 WINS. "Bill Bratton, my police commissioner, came to the decision that it wasn't helping us, but it was alienating large segments of the Muslim community."
"Donald Trump doesn't know a whole lot about policing, he doesn't know a whole lot about national security, if you want to know how to keep people safe I'd ask Bill Bratton what he thinks and this was something Bill Bratton fully endorsed," the mayor added.
De Blasio also criticized Trump for using divisive language "in a moment of tragedy and a moment of sorrow when we should be focused on the families who have lost loved ones and we should be focused on positive solutions."
Earlier, Trump dismissed criticism that his own rhetoric about Muslims contributes to attacks like the one in Orlando.
"Did you see what happened yesterday? They're worried about my words? Look at the people that were killed yesterday. This is just the beginning. This is going to get worse and worse," Trump said. "We better get smart to it because believe me all I want is safety, I want safety for this country."
Trump plans to further address the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history during a campaign speech in New Hampshire originally intended to attack the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
Meanwhile, New York City deployed more than 500 anti-terrorism officers as a precaution Monday, a day after the the shooting.
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