Assemblyman Hikind (Photo: Getty)

On his radio show last Saturday night, Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind took some time to castigate the harshest critics of the recently-revealed New York City Police Department surveillance program of Muslim mosques and businesses, and especially the New Jersey politicians calling for an investigation into the NYPD's actions in their state.

"Recently, it all started with the Associated Press when they came out with a report, a  study, of ... what the police department is doing is too intrusive, they're invading Muslim mosques and they're doing this, they're doing that, and they're doing the other thing," Mr. Hikind explained, mocking the critics' claims. “As the days go on, more and more people, especially Democrats and people on the left, are criticizing, asking for investigations. A Senator from New Jersey, I think Menendez is his name, asked for the Justice Department to look into this. I mean, these people are nuts! Cory Booker, the Mayor of Newark, same thing."

"They're very, very upset. I think it is so ridiculous. I think these people are endangering all of us," he added.

Mr. Hikind then went on to defend police profiling, suggesting, it would seem, that Muslims fit a "terrorist profile." Several years ago, Mr. Hikind introduced legislation allowing the police to search all Middle Eastern men in the subways.

"The police department is doing what it needs to do to protect us," he said. "If it means going into a particular area because ... it so happens that 99% of the incidents of attempts of terrorism and acts of terrorism ... were committed by people who fit, you might say, a certain profile, I call it the 'terrorist profile,' Of course you go!"

Mr. Hikind concluded his pre-show monologue by calling the situation "nuts" a couple more times.

"I just think that this is absolutely nuts and not enough people on our side have spoken out on this, and I intend to change that," he said. "Be that as it may, the insanity to watch this go on and on and on where people are criticizing the police department and the police commissioner. Nuts!"

(Photo: Wikimedia)

After a recently leaked New York Police Department document revealed extensive surveillance operations of mosques and Muslim-owned businesses in Newark, New Jersey, critics pounced. However, on John Gambling's radio show this morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg argued the attacks of September 11th proved the need to monitor the Garden State.

"You've got to remember, an awful lot of 9/11 hijackers stayed in New Jersey for an extended periods of time, training, planning their attacks," he said. "Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the attacks, often met with others in Newark to coordinate and plan the attacks, including selecting which flights to hijack. There's a reason to take a look at Newark here."

"The people of Newark New Jersey, the people of New Jersey, are protected as well," he added. "The NYPD is trying to stop terrorism in the entire region. If we knew about at threat in Newark, we wouldn't say, 'Oh, that's yours. You worry about it.' Quite the contrary."

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is among the NYPD's harshest critics of this new report. "The Newark Police Department was not involved in joint operations with the New York Police Department as was described in the disclosed NYPD report," he said Wednesday, adding that placing "large segments of a religious community under surveillance with no legitimate cause or provocation clearly crosses a line" and is "deeply offensive."

Mr. Bloomberg addressed Mr. Booker directly in his interview. "You talk about the criticism from people in New Jersey," Mr. Bloomberg said. "We did brief the Newark Police Department. We did not, to the best of my knowledge, brief Mayor Booker. So Mayor Booker says he did not know, he's telling the truth."

Because the leaked report was from 2007, Mr. Gambling also pressed also Mr. Bloomberg on whether the NYPD is still conducting these sorts of operations today.

"Let me be careful how I phrase it," he answered, pausing for a second. "We have not let down our guard. We take the threats today just as seriously as the threats of September 12th, 2011. We have not forgotten the lesson of that terrible day on 9/11."

(Photo: Getty)

On John Gambling's radio show this morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg took some time to defend the New York Police Department, which is under criticism for spying on Muslims throughout the Northeast, including sending an agent on a whitewater rafting trip while counting how many times a day some Muslim students prayed. Today, the Associated Press further reported the NYPD "targeted Muslim mosques with tactics normally reserved for criminal organizations." Mr. Bloomberg didn't have any problem with these actions, however.

"Our primary objective is to prevent things from happening," Mr. Bloomberg explained. "We've got to do everything that the law permits us to do to prevent another terror attack, and we cannot forget that."

"We're going to continue to take all possible legal steps to keep this city safe. We're going to follow all possible leads wherever they take us," he repeated later in the interview.

While insisting another time that everything the NYPD has done is "legal," "appropriate" and "Constitutional," Mr. Bloomberg further argued the police department doesn't specifically target Muslims and defended his personal record on civil rights.

"We don't target individuals based on race or religion," he said.

"We have the most diverse city in the world. We respect every race and every religion. Nobody stood up for the right to pray or participate in our democracy more than I have. And that's why terrorists want to destroy us. We threaten them because we actually practice what we preach."

(Photo: Getty)

It was recently revealed that the NYPD secretly monitored college students throughout the Northeast, something that received particularly strong criticism from the president of Yale University, Richard Levin, who wrote "the police surveillance based on religion, nationality, or peacefully expressed political opinions is antithetical to the values of Yale, the academic community, and the United States." After Mayor Michael Bloomberg finished a press conference earlier this afternoon, he was nonplussed when asked about Mr. Levin's remarks.

"I don't know why keeping the country safe is antithetical to the values of Yale," he responded. "Yale's freedoms to do research, to teach, to give people a place to say what they want to say, is defended by the law enforcement throughout this country that works very hard to make sure that we are safe."

"Of course we're going to look at anything that's publicly available in the public domain and we have an obligation to do so. It is to protect the very things that let Yale survive," he added.

DNAinfo's Jill Colvin proceeded to press Mr. Bloomberg on the NYPD's expansive monitoring activities. Asked if sending a police agent on a whitewater rafting trip and recording how often the students prayed was a step too far, he responded with a simple "no."

"It's very cute to go and to blame everybody and say we should stay away from anything that smacks of intelligence gathering," he explained. "The job of our law enforcement is to make sure that they prevent things, and you only do that by being proactive. You have to respect people's right to privacy, you have to obey the law, and I think the police officers across this country ... do that."

Mr. Bloomberg then transitioned to making a direct appeal to the inquiring reporter.

"Having said all of  that, you are not going to survive, you will not be able to be a journalist and write what you want to say if the people who want to take away your freedoms are allowed to succeed."

Watch Mr. Bloomberg make his remarks below: