Video: NYPD Quotas "Productivity Goals" in Action!

Yesterday NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly shrugged off calls for an investigation into the NYPD's ticket quotas, telling reporters, he didn't "see any problem" with two 77th Precinct memos obtained by the Daily News that itemized how many moving violations officers need to hand out in a week. "We have productivity goals, just like your job does, just like any job does," Kelly said yesterday. In light of that, today ABC 7 points us to an incident that was caught on tape last month in Crown Heights, when three men conversing outside a residence at 10 p.m. were stopped by what appear to be rookie cops, ordered to disperse, and then issued summonses for blocking pedestrian traffic.

Police Harrasing Bochurim from CrownHeights.info on Vimeo.

The sidewalk was virtually empty at the time of the incident, but that didn't stop four eager young officers from approaching the three college students and demanding to see I.D. The trio were chatting on Carroll Street, on the corner of Kingston Avenue, outside a building housing predominantly Jewish residents. Despite the fact that one of the men lived in the building, and they were initially "standing on private property, inside the building's plaza and not on the sidewalk," they were each issued summons.

Also infuriating: CrownHeights.info reports that "one of the officers got into a confrontation with a CrownHeights.info photographer. He demanded that he stop taking pictures and leave the scene. The photographer explained to the officer that he was standing on private property and the officer had no right to tell him what to do." Yosef Bergovoy, one of the Sidewalk Three, tells ABC, "During the hour of detainment, we asked we're standing on the sidewalk, we're standing on private property, what's the problem, who are we disturbing? I don't think we did anything wrong on any level so I was just surprised about it, even a little bit frightened that one day you could be standing talking to a friend and just randomly you have to go to court."

Fighting such a summons can result in victory for the accused, but at the cost of taking a day off work and standing on a long line at the courthouse. The NYPD says the three men "were making a lot of noise and causing pedestrians to go around them into the street." But witnesses insist that's false, and the incident all too neatly dovetails with what we heard on the secret tapes of NYPD supervisors during roll call. "I want a ghost town; I want to hear an echo from one end of the street to the other," said one supervisor at the 41st Precinct in the Bronx. "You understand, that's what I want in a perfect world. So that's your mission. You guys need collars, you need activity, there you go, they got to be removed."

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By John Del Signore in News on November 10, 2010 10:55 AM

Comments [rss]

Soundhertz

Well...I invite them to visit Hamilton Heights. There are people on the sidewalks all day and night and they're never harassed. Then again, these precincts have bigger problems than folks on stoops.

Wza

Fucking ridiculous.

Spirit of 76

Traffic fines don't go to the city, hence no incentive for cops to write tickets.

maggie

If anything, maybe they should be raising quotas on moving violations. I see a dozen or more a day, often right in front of police cars, and no one ever gets stopped. Maybe more enforcement of traffic laws (which exist for a reason) will help bridge some budget gaps and reduce the number of near-death experiences I have to deal with.

And, yes, bikers are just as bad, if not worse. I can't wait for one of those careless little sh!ts to actually hit me so I can sue the hell out of them.

Rocknrope

Keep it up NYPD, see if anyone helps your detectives in the course of a real investigation.

Guest

Thank you thank you thank you for bringing this to light. This happens to us allll the time in the Bronx. Cops just harass peaceful citizens and write tickets. When you go to court, all you see are hardworking people who had to take a day off of work (unpaid, I'm sure) to answer a summons based on nonsense. Many of them get dismissed. But it's still an awful inconvenience to the citizens of this city who can least afford it. I try not to hate cops outright but I just don't see them doing anything but harassing the people they're supposed to be protecting or escalating situations that shouldn't be escalated. I don't see cops as helpful. Ever.

Mordicai

This is errant nonsense, but I will say this: the civilians handled themselves well & the police officers handled themselves well. This isn't a matter of individual cops behaving badly, this is a matter of stupid policies from the top. Heck, I'm down with a little Broken Windows doctrine, but not to the point of bugging law abiding citizens. A sense of community is part of a healthy neighborhood, & that includes people on the street who aren't being jerks.

Guest

I'm more shocked that it's Jews getting summonses! Aren't those guys untouchable. They probably had uncle Bloomy dismiss them the minute the video cut.

Mordicai

Because Jews have traditionally had it so well? You are right, they probably got on the secret Shofar hotline & had Bloomberg bail them out, since Jews are all in secret alliance.

CR

"causing pedestrians to go around them into the street"

But the cops forcing cyclists out of the bike lane into the street apparently isn't a problem...

CR

Also, what were they doing on the sidewalk taking up so much space? Break dancing? Putting a stumbling block before the blind?

handsomedevil

They are young males, which equals criminal. The very fact that they are standing around is a threat to the neighborhood.

Although, actually, here's my paranoid speculation of the day - I think this was an equal-opportunity ball-busting. The precinct's goal is to target young black men on other blocks (since everybody knows that they really *are* criminals, it's a fact, he said sarcastically.) But hmmm, how do we pretend this is a fair and non-discriminatory policy? Oh rite, we can just treat all young males in the neighborhood like shit. That'll work.

H.J. Simpson

Hence in lies the problem. Officers will begin to harass the minority group that is used to police harassment.

The police should change their motto to, "To Provoke, Protect & Serve"