NYPD Commissioner Slams Cruz Over Call to Patrol ‘Muslim Neighborhoods'

Commissioner William Bratton said the police doesn't 'patrol and secure' neighborhoods based on selective enforcement because of race or religion

New York City's police commissioner slammed Ted Cruz Saturday for suggesting police step up patrols of "Muslim neighborhoods" after the terror attacks in Brussels, and accused the Republican presidential hopeful of exploiting the tragedy, NBC News reported.

"We already patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods, the same way we patrol and secure other neighborhoods," Commissioner William Bratton wrote in an op-ed in the New York Daily News. "But no, we do not single out any populace, black, white, yellow or brown for selective enforcement."

"We do not 'patrol and secure' neighborhoods based on selective enforcement because of race or religion, nor will we use the police and an occupying force to intimidate a populace or a religion to appease the provocative chatter of politicians seeking to exploit fear," Bratton continued.

Bratton, along with President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Council on American-Islamic Relations all condemned Cruz' proposal shortly after he made it Tuesday.

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