Bernard Kerik Calls For Military Engagement With ISIS
By Chris Stigall and Rich Zeoli
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said confronting ISIS militarily is the only way to stop the terrorist group and called on police departments to ignore criticisms that they are overly militarized.
Kerik, in interviews with both Chris Stigall and Rich Zeoli on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, insisted Washington should directly wage war on ISIS.
"There is a radical interpretation of Islam that is, basically, an enemy of the West, of freedom, of democracy and until we, in this country, until our political leaders get in their head that this enemy is not going away. There's no diplomatic solution. There's no working with them. There's no talking to them."
He thinks local police forces need to have more militarized equipment, should they ever need to confront a terrorist incident, and not give up their heavy military machinery, as many have demanded.
"Are the police departments getting the training and the resources they need to do the jobs that they have to do? Keep in mind, what we saw in Paris was a basic military type attack on Paris. Our police departments, our SWAT teams, our emergency service teams, they've been crucified over the last six to 12 months. We want to de-militarize. We don't want them to have hardened equipment. We don't want them to have special operations equipment. I got news for you, if something like Paris happens, they're going to need all the equipment they can get, number one. And number two, they're going to have to fight this battle and this attack just like our troops are in Iraq."
Kerik also warned that radicalized Muslims could be looking to hide in American mosques to hide from detection by law enforcement.
"You have to look at what they do in Iraq and Syria, in the Arab nations, where do they go when they want to communicate? They go to the mosque. Where do they go when they want to hide, especially when they want to hide from the coalition government? They go in the mosques because they know nobody's going to touch them. Nobody's going to target them. Nobody's going to bomb them. That's where these guys, they go too. You have to take that into consideration. We have to allow people to have their religious freedom, but we also have to realize that this is an arena where radical Islamists may use the mosque for cover and we have to do what we have to do to keep safe."