Before the Tuesday’s vote in the Congressional primary, The Forum posed these questions to three candidates vying for the Democratic nomination.
1. What’s the correct balance to strike between protecting civil liberties and confronting crime and terrorism? Please address stop and frisk and the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslim and other groups.
2. Is the Obama administration’s expanded use of drones appropriate?
3. In a situation such as an oppressive dictator of full-blown civil war such as Syria, when is the appropriate time to step over the line and intervene beyond diplomacy and sanctions, and how?
4. Education District 24 in Queens is the most overcrowded in the city. What is the problem here? What can be done to help ease the burden on local schools?
5. We may have recently lost out on Gov. Cuomo’s centerpiece plan to bring jobs to Queens when the convention center negotiations fell through. What can concretely be done stimulate economic growth in Queens?
Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley:
1. I’m the only candidate in this race that has not called for the Attorney General to conduct an investigation into stop and frisk. I don’t believe anybody’s civil liberties should be infringed upon while protecting our public safety.
In terms of the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslim communities, investigations have shown that the NYPD conducted lawful surveillance to gather intelligence and did not illegally target groups because of their religion. On stop and frisk, there are fewer police officers on the street, and the use of quotas in the department—whether the Police Commissioner Ray Kelly admits to them or not—is leading to defensive policing tactics. We need to make sure stops are conducted lawfully, and I believe Commissioner Kelly will make important reforms to work with minority communities.
2. The Obama administration can and should use drones to protect our country from terrorists.
3. As a leader of Democracy, the United States should work with NATO and the U.N. to apply pressure on dictators inciting civil war or harming their people, like the situation currently in Syria. Diplomacy and sanctions are my preferred option, and I would exhaust all options before going to war. However, in the face of grave injustices, similar to what occurred in Libya, with full international support, I would support some limited military intervention, preferably by NATO.
4. As a mother of two high school students in our public schools, I know the importance of education. Overcrowding in schools, especially in district 24, is a serious problem in our community. There was a severe shortage in school space, which is why I focused on ensuring resources to build new schools like Maspeth High School and extensions on schools like P.S. 87 to increase the number of seats. In Washington, I would fight for federal dollars to ensure New York City can hire and keep the best teachers to keep class sizes small.
5.We need to keep investing in our infrastructure and get our economy back on track. My plan is to implement a fair tax plan where the wealthiest pay their fair share and ease the tax burden on working families. We can use these resources to spur job growth here at home. Better bus and rail service in the borough would help encourage more people to live and work in our communities. Finally, I would fight to stop giving big tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas and instead give tax credits to small businesses, which are the backbone of our economy, that expand their workforce locally. More specifically, I would push for smart development at Willets Point, a 7 Train extension to LaGuardia Airport, and expand on Mayor Bloomberg’s push to bring high tech jobs to Queens.
Assemblyman Rory Lancman:
1.That line moves based on the nature of the threat of the country. That line is based on the framework of 200 years of interpretation of our constitution. Stop and frisk is meant to deter the regular criminal activity that we live with on a regular basis. And the idea that we’re going to reduce crime by stopping, detaining, frisking and questioning six to seven hundred thousand New Yorkers a year that have done nothing wrong, in my mind crosses the line. No New Yorker should ever be stopped and frisked and questioned unless there is some reasonable suspicion that they themselves have done something wrong. On the terrorism surveillance program, the threat that we’re facing could have catastrophic consequences. That requires a very vigilant and aggressive prevention program. It also requires us accepting certain realities that the threat we’re facing is coming from Islamic fundamentalism. As long as the NYPD or whoever is engaged in the program is not crossing any of the lines that 200 plus years of jurisprudence have developed based on our trying to sort through these questions and arrive and answers that fit our values, I fully support the program.
2.I think he’s been very aggressive about targeting and killing terrorists and, I’m completely in support of that. Print it: a dead terrorist is a good terrorist. In terms of the “kill list” I am a little uncomfortable with one person, even if it is the president of the United States, deciding who is on the list and who doesn’t go on the list. I think Congress should look at that.
3.I think the real issue in Syria, as it was in Libya, is an estimation of what’s worse. I know it’s a hard thing to say, but very often in life, and especially in foreign policy, we’re choosing between the lesser of two evils. I’m not sure that if we were to intervene in Syria militarily like we did in Libya, even if it’s just from 30,000 feet, I’m not sure we’re going to get a better result for the Syrian people. I think we have to do definitely everything that we can to stop the atrocities that the Syrian government is committing, but do we go so far as to empower and support the opposition in terms of militarily in terms of what is clearly devolving into a civil war? I’d need to know a lot more about the folks that are involved on that side of things.
4. I think that there’s a broader systematic problem with our educational system in New York City and that is the mayor and the chancellor don’t have as their priority things like lower class sizes and enough classroom space for our kids. They have all these other gee-whiz ideas about closing schools, charter schools and co-locations. I think fundamentally the city has had the wrong priorities in terms of the educational needs of our kids. It’s not for lack of money.
5. I was in favor of the convention center as long as it was Genting’s or someone else’s money. If Genting or someone else wants to do it and pay for it, God bless, jobs for the people building it and hopefully it would be successful. I would like to see something big done at Aqueduct because it’s been promised to us. There is a lot of work to be done at the airports, especially to make transportation from JFK and LaGuardia into the city more efficient. I would be very disappointed if the Aqueduct transformation was completely done with.
Assemblywoman Grace Meng:
1.Our first priority always must be keeping people and neighborhoods safe. I support giving the NYPD the tools and resources it needs to keep our streets safe and continue its world-class counterterrorism programs.
When it comes to stop and frisk, I agree with Mayor Bloomberg when he says it should be “mended, not ended.” We must strive to ensure that neither safety nor civil liberties is sacrificed, because both are so important.
In this vein, I applaud the Governor’s recent initiatives to begin resolving this issue and mitigate any threats to citizens’ civil liberties without threatening public safety. This is just the sort of creative collaboration we need more of in Washington.
2.Yes. It is an effective way to stay on the offensive against terrorists while reducing our military budget and protecting American lives.
3.Each such situation is unique. In the case of Syria, there is no military solution at this time.
We must continue to pursue diplomacy and sanctions against the Syrian regime, and persuade Russia to work with us toward an orderly transition of power.
4. District 24 is one of the finest school districts in the city. In order to ease the burden we need to hire more teachers and
build more schools. As populations increase over time, we need more teachers. However, in recent years, we have reduced the number of teachers in New York City. When I get to Washington, I will fight for immediate federal aid to state and local governments for the hiring of teachers. This will improve education, reduce class sizes, and put teachers back to work.
5.Creating jobs for hardworking families will be my top priority when I get to Congress. While we avoided plunging into a second Great Depression following the 2008 financial crisis, economic growth is still too slow and our unemployment rate is still too high. I have a clear vision and four-point plan for bringing jobs back to Queens:
• Immediate federal aid to local and state governments to hire more public sector workers, including teachers, police officers and firefighters.
• Federal transportation dollars—and transportation-related jobs—for Queens. I will seek appointment to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in order to achieve this objective.
• Tax credits for small businesses that hire new workers.
•Investment in technological advancement and initiatives that will help Queens thrive as a technology corridor.
If we pursue these objectives, we will create much needed jobs right now, and lay the foundation for greater success in the long-term. I have a clear vision and a specific plan, and when I get to Washington I will hit the ground running in pursuit of these objectives.