Define "Quota"

First off, what you already knew: cops, at least cops in one East New York precinct, are "expected to write four parking tickets, three moving violations, three quality-of-life summonses and two stop-and-frisks every month." Now the tricky part, what does that sound like a description of to you? When we read it, we think something like "that sounds like having a monthly quota to me" however when Mayor Bloomberg reads that he apparently thinks something like "gee golly, Ms. Molly, that's a purty performance standard!"*

But seriously, Bloomie has recently found himself in a bit of a bind over the definition of the word quota. It's not totally his fault, however. Mikey knows that law enforcement "quotas" are not popular but he also knows that people like traffic to move as swiftly as possible and that the city made $560 million in ticket money this past fiscal year. And those happiness and money far outweigh the unpopularity of a word. So instead the NYPD has "performance standards" and cops who don't live up to them are "evaluated," not fired.

On the one hand, we understand and agree with the general distaste for these kinds of quotas, we've definitely known many drivers who've been ticketed unfairly. But on the other hand, if the quotas are as low as the ones we quoted from the Daily News above (and was anyone else surprised by how lowe they were?) then we really don't see what the fuss is about. As Bloomberg put it in his radio address: "if his [a cop's] job is to enforce the law and give tickets where people are breaking the law, it sort of defies credibility - what re the odds of going a day without seeing anybody? The odds on two days - zero." We gotta agree, we rarely go a day without seeing some incredibly illegal parking and driving that seems to go unticketed.

Horseback Ticket by whatisee.