Critics to Obama: NYPD Commissioner Kelly Wrong for Homeland Security

New York Daily News
Barry Paddock
Posted: Sunday, July 21, 2013, 9:27 PM

Minority law enforcement groups excoriated Kelly for the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy and its Muslim surveillance program. In a TV interview last week, President Barack Obama had said Kelly would be ‘very well qualified’ to be secretary of homeland security.

Black and Latino law enforcement groups rallied Sunday against the idea of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly being named to run the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“This commissioner has both codified and legalized racial profiling,” said Anthony Miranda, a retired NYPD sergeant and head of the National Latino Officers Association.

“We can’t allow him to take racial profiling to the national level.”

Miranda and other leaders, speaking in front of Police Headquarters on Sunday, excoriated Kelly for the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy and its Muslim surveillance program.

In a television interview last week, President Barack Obama said Kelly would be “very well qualified” to be secretary of homeland security.

Critics disagreed Sunday, citing the high numbers of innocent blacks and Hispanics who are stopped and questioned.

“Citizens’ civil rights are being violated by the hundreds and hundreds of thousands,” said Noel Leader, a retired NYPD sergeant and co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement.

“Why approve someone with this track record?”

Kelly has vigorously defended the legality and effectiveness of both stop-and-frisk and the NYPD’s monitoring of Muslim neighborhoods.