The city’s former top cop teed off Wednesday on the de Blasio administration for a report that criticized the NYPD for its handling of counter-terrorism investigations.
Former Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he was “incensed” at the Inspector General’s report, which found that the NYPD failed to get permission to continue investigations of Muslim groups.
“This is a pathetic attempt at another political hit job on the Police Department by the de Blasio administration and it clearly missed the mark,” he said on “The John Gambling Show” on AM 970.
“It really is absurd. The only rule that was mentioned that was broken was that the department did not notify itself about the extension of an investigation.”
Kelly went on to charge that Mark Peters, head of the Department of Investigation, was just doing de Blasio’s bidding.
“What the headline should have said is that the mayor’s own commission finds that the police department acted properly in choosing who it would investigate, but that’s the way of this administration,” he said.
“That’s what you get when the commissioner of investigation is the chairman of your campaign finance committee. It certainly lacks any credibility.”
Peters, who was the treasurer for de Blasio’s campaign committee, did not directly respond to Kelly Wednesday.
“We stand by our report’s findings and decline further comment,” DOI spokeswoman Diane Struzzi said.
“Mayor de Blasio will continue to trust and support our NYPD, and he’ll continue to reject the divisive worldview of Donald Trump, Ray Kelly and Rudy Giuliani,” said de Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips.
Kelly also suggested that DOI set out to find wrongdoing, but simply couldn’t. Instead, it found that the NYPD acted correctly in choosing who it would investigate and why.
“They thought they would find something that the Bloomberg administration did but they couldn’t do it,” he said.
“It’s a twisted, distorted attempt to find something wrong,” he added. “If this holds any water in the de Blasio administration, then we’re all in trouble.”
Former NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly came out swinging Wednesday against Mayor de Blasio over a report critical of the cops’ Muslim surveillance program in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“I was incensed,” Kelly said on the John Gambling show on AM 970 The Answer. “This is a pathetic attempt at another political hit job on the police department by the de Blasio administration and it clearly missed their mark.”
Kelly told Gambling he was on vacation and read a story about the Department of Investigation’s report in the New York Times, which he also slammed.
“I see a headline and it says ‘Police broke surveillance rules after 9/11, inquiry finds.’ Obviously, it’s something that interests me,” he said. “I read the article, it is really absurd. The only rule that it mentions broken were that the department did not notify itself about the extension of an investigation.”
He pointed out that the review by Inspector General Philip Eure found that all the investigations were appropriate. Kelly said that fact was only mentioned secondhand in the report.
“Obviously, that was the big question and that’s what this group set out to do to find wrongdoing on the part of the police department in who they’re investigating and why, and they found none,” Kelly seethed.
The IG audited a sample of closed cases dating back to 2004.
“Clearly, they would have loved to find something that the Bloomberg administration did but they couldn’t do it,” Kelly continued. “This is pathetic, this finding.”
His tongue lashing continued against the mayor and the paper.
“What the headline should have said is that the mayor’s own commission finds that the police department acted properly in choosing whom it would investigate and why it did the investigation since 2004,” he said. “But that’s not the way of this administration. That’s what you get when the commissioner of investigations is the chairman of your campaign finance committee. It certainly lacks any credibility in terms of the positioning of the findings.”
He said the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau should be commended for thwarting any new terrorist attacks since 9/11.
“The whole thing is absurd,” he said. “It is a twisted distorted attempt to find something wrong. When in fact it should be praising the intelligence division. .. No attacks against New York City after 9/11. That’s something everyone should be proud of. But no not this administration. They’re going to continue to try to find fault. Maybe he thinks this helps him in the election.”
A de Blasio rep fired back, saying: “Mayor de Blasio will continue to trust and support our NYPD, and he will continue to reject the divisive worldview of Donald Trump, Ray Kelly and Rudy Giuliani.”