Republican calls for increased surveillance in Muslim neighborhoods

The chairman of the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence says there  needs to be more surveillance in Muslim neighborhoods after the terrorist attacks in Paris.

“We have to have more surveillance in the Muslim community,” Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) told John Catsimatidis on AM 970 New York on Sunday.

“The reality is that’s where the terrorism is coming from. Doesn’t mean that all Muslims are evil, doesn’t mean all Muslims support terrorism, the overwhelming majority do not.

But the reality is that’s where the threat is coming from,” he added.

King dismissed notions of political correctness and charges of racial profiling as “absolute nonsense” that will “cost human lives.”

“And right now in France, I don’t think the French intelligence forces are spending their time in the Catholic community or the Jewish community.

Right now, they’re looking for terrorists in the Muslim community, and that is what we have to do,” he said.

King pointed to instances in which the FBI has given heightened scrutiny to Irish and Italian neighborhoods when those communities posed threats to the public safety.

“And going back into the 60s and 70s, when the FBI knew threats from organized crime were coming from the Italian communities, they went to the Italian areas,” he said.

“When they were going after the Westies, which are all Irish-American, they went to the Irish bars and the Irish neighborhoods.”

“If it turns out tomorrow it’s coming from Irish-Americans, then saturate the Irish communities, I have no problem with that.”

King said he was not advocating an internment- style program, such as what Japanese-Americans were subject to in World War II, which he said “went too far.”

“I’m talking about abiding by the Constitution, not violating anyone’s rights, but using good, ordinary police sense, and that’s let cops do their job on the ground, let them build up their sources, let them go to these areas where these terrorist possibilities are, and take whatever action has to be done,” he said.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday that left at least 129 dead and hundreds wounded.