Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

March 4, 2010

Whatever else can be said about Officer Adil Polanco of the New York Police Department, his disclosure of arbitrary arrest quotas makes him an authentic hero.

Officer Polanco told WABC News that he and other officers in the NYPD?s 41st Precinct are under severe pressure to make needless arrests and issue unnecessary summonses.

?Our primary job is not to help anybody, our primary job is to get those numbers and come back with them,? Polanco explains.

In a recording obtained by WABC, a supervising officer describes the quotas to his subordinates and tells them that ?until you decide to quit this job and go to work at a Pizza Hut, this is what you?re going to be doing till then. Do you understand??

One case described in the report involves two young men needlessly arrested and held in jail overnight before being released without charges ? simply to meet a quota.

NYPD officials describe this kind of thing as police being ?productive.? The word ?predatory? makes a better fit.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.