Stand aside, privacy-rights protectionists. The bombings in Boston prove the nation needs to change how it interprets the Constitution to give government greater power to protect citizens, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said.

“The people who are worried about privacy have a legitimate worry,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a Tuesday press conference reported by the Politicker. “But we live in a complex world where you’re going to have to have a level of security greater than you did back in the olden days, if you will. And our laws and our interpretation of the Constitution, I think, have to change.”

Specifically, Mr. Bloomberg said the nation needed more surveillance and the likes of more magnetometers in schools.

“We have to understand that in the world going forward, we’re going to have more cameras and that kind of stuff,” he said in Politicker, talking of the need for greater latitude for courts to grant powers to law enforcement and government to provide security.

“Our obligation, first and foremost,” he said, “is to keep our kids safe in the schools. First and foremost [it’s] to keep you safe if you [go] to a sporting event. First and foremost, [it’s] to keep you safe if you walk down the streets or go into our parks.”

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