(This video originally appears on ABC’s website)

Transcript

NEW YORK (WABC) Jim Hoffer — An Eyewitness News investigation talks to a police officer who reveals the pressure they are under to make quotas.

When Officer Adil Polanco dreamed of becoming a cop, it was out of a desire to help people not, he says, to harass them.

“I’m not going to keep arresting innocent people, I’m not going to keep searching people for no reason, I’m not going to keep writing people for no reason, I’m tired of this,” said Adil Polanco, an NYPD Officer.

Officer Polanco says One Police Plaza’s obsession with keeping crime stats down has gotten out of control. He claims Precinct Commanders relentlessly pressure cops on the street to make more arrests, and give out more summonses, all to show headquarters they have a tight grip on their neighborhoods.
“Our primary job is not to help anybody, our primary job is not to assist anybody, our primary job is to get those numbers and come back with them?” said Officer Polanco.

Eyewitness News asked, “Why do it?”

“They have to meet a quota. One arrest and twenty summonses,” said Officer Polanco.

This audio recording exclusively obtained by Eyewitness News seems to back up Officer Polanco’s assertion of a quota. You can listen to one officer as he lectures his rank and file officers during roll call at the 41st precinct.

“Things are not going to get any better. It’s going to get a lot worse,” said a police officer.

He lays out clearly that they need to bring in the numbers.

“If you think 1 and 20 is breaking your balls, guess what you’re going to be doing. You’re gong to be doing a lot more, a lot more than what they’re saying,” said the officer.

In another recording, the 41st Precinct Patrol Supervisor appears to step up the pressure to write more and more summonses:

“Next week, 25 &1, 35 & 1, and until you decide to quit this job to go to work at a Pizza Hut , this is what you’re going to be doing till then. Do you understand?” asked the patrol officer.

“He’s being clear, the only choice that we have is to do it,” said Officer Polanco.

Eyewitness News asked, “Are you telling me they’re stopping people for no reason, is that what you’re saying?”

“We are stopping kids walking upstairs to their house, stopping kids going to the store, young adults. In order to keep the quota,” answered Officer Polanco.

“Yeah, they locked us up for nothing,” said Zebulun Colbourne.

The Colbourne brothers say they and three other friends were the victims of quotas. All were arrested a few months ago after one of them had fallen while racing each other.

Eyewitness News asked, “You fell and that’s how you hurt your eye?”

“Yeah, and they just wanted to arrest us. I told them I fell but that didn’t matter to them,” said Elijah Colbourne.

All five were accused of engaging in tumultuous and violent conduct that caused public alarm, given a summons for unlawful assembly and locked up overnight.

Eyewitness News asked, “So you’re locked up waiting to see the judge, right?”

“Yeah,” answered the Colbourne brothers.

Eyewitness News asked, “Then what do they do?”

“We don’t see the judge, they let us out the back door after they kept us for a day and some change,” said Elijah Colbourne.

The charges were dropped, but Officer Polanco says the patrolman still got 5 summonses toward their monthly quota.

“At the end of the night you have to come back with something. You have to write somebody, you have to arrest somebody, even if the crime is not committed, the number’s there. So our choice is to come up with the number,” said Officer Polanco.

One Police Plaza declined our requests to interview the 41st precinct commander. But, Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said, “Police Officers like others who receive compensation are provided productivity goals and they are expected to work.”

Officer Polanco says if they are just goals, why are officers who fail to make them, re-assigned to different shifts or relocated far from home.

It’s the consequences of not making the numbers or quotas, he says, that forces officers to give out bogus summonses.

“I cannot be more honest than I’ve been. There’s no reason for me to lie, there’s no reason for me to get into the trouble I am, cause I just could’ve kept quiet and made the money,” said Officer Polanco.

1) Captain Obvious to the rescue

If you have walked around Harlem in the last ten years, this story should not or does not surprise you. Everyone I passed the link or story around to who has lived here for a while responded with amusement, confirmation, and continuing with their day. Why? In part because demographic shifts get picked up by the census after people experience it in their everyday lives. The standard “quick and dirty” test of racial segregation within NYC that I give my students is the “train test.” I ask them, “Where do you get on? Where do you get off? What type of people (ethnicity) get off at your stop? When can you get a seat?” These questions lead them to think about demographic change in terms of race, ethnicity, economy, and space. In short, ride a train and you’d know that non-”Black” folks have been streaming uptown for a while now.

From IRAAS Harlem History Photo Essay

2) The Great White Fear

The article features a lovely picture of a White man, Joshua Buachner and his 2 year old daughter. It’s amazing how a docile picture of brownstone can create such a panic. The responses I saw highlighted the booming White surge in Harlem. Well kids, look at the numbers! First, the article plainly states Central Harlem has received a boom, doubling so now that means 1 in 10 residents in Central Harlem are White! Whoa! One in 10 … yeah, that’s right let it marinate … oh wait, not running scared? Right! The percentage of White residents was so low that a doubling lead to 1 in 10. If you look at the graphs provided, you’ll see there is a significant uptick but not one many are concentrating on. And trust me, 1 in 10 should make you think when you get of at 125th that you got off in the Upper East Side. Perspective is everything.

3) Urban Amnesia

The article pretty much steps over the entire history of redlining and other forms of systematic depreciation of Harlem properties and shuffling of the Black population into Harlem. Redlining served to keep people from buying property, served to make folks who had property sell instead of “riding the tide”, served to limit commerce in Harlem, and even carried a premium for services used by residents. Yes, there was significant outmigration, but this outmigration operated in concert with the “invisible hand” of financial incentives for some and disincentives for others. In reality, Black Harlem has really been leased space. A significant number of Black folks were able to buy, but many if not most Black folks in Harlem did not own; they rented. The result is that the owners left, the renters stayed, and Harlem’s economic depression continued for far too long. The out-migration and in-migration (depends on who you ask also known as gentrification) is not happenstance. Yes, everyone has individual agency and choices, but one’s choices are shaped by larger forces.

4) Black is, Black ain’t?

The article stresses the decrease in “Black” families, which the author never defines but we can take to mean largely African-American families (people of African descent who were part of US chattel slavery). In passing the article mentions the increasing numbers of Black residents who are not African-American such as West Indian and Continental African immigrants. This expansion of the African diasporic presence can be seen in food choices, neighborhood institutions, and has undoubtedly added to the flavor of Harlem… but what about the “other” folks? You know, the ones the article gives short sell to? The most rapidly increasing groups in Harlem according to the chart are the “other(s).” And I’d bet, though I don’t have the data, this is an increase in Latinos, particularly Afro-Latinos. The article quickly mentions that the Latino population is at an all time high in Central Harlem and Harlem at large. It seems that that for the past 30 plus years, Latinos have been moving in and occupying neighborhoods throughout Harlem without large alarm and cover stories. Uptown has a bustling Afro-Latino population which should not continue to be overlooked. If you are a student of Harlem, you know there has been tension but also very fertile ground around race and ethnic solidarity between African-Americans, Continental Africans,  Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, etc. This could represent a greater Pan Afrikan possibility … or panic, it’s up to us to decide.

5) Whose/Who’s Harlem?

The next steps for Harlem are in motion. Yes, there is an increasing White presence, but to me the more important part is that there is an increasing Latino presence, particularly Afro-Latino population. These are the moments when Harlem residents have a chance to redefine what it means to be Black Harlem. While in the 20th century Harlem witnessed the extreme flight of Whites and its Blackening, the process does not have to be reversed. Everyday when I walk around Harlem and the Heights I see the beauty of the Diaspora. A key to maintaining our stake and status in this historic “capital of Black America” is looking for links of solidarity around affordable housing, living wages, and community. Black Harlem has always been what its residents made it out to be. Ownership has never been the bedrock of the community, instead its the vibrance of our people that creates beauty in the midst of struggle.

The election was actually indicative of a real shift in the body politic and presented a realistic opportunity to further develop a progressive/moderate coalition of so called racial minorities and young whites.  The shift should have presented the dems an opportunity to actually cater to their base and to prepare for the inevitable push back from the Right.  Instead, liberals drank their own cool aid and embraced the “post-racial” prism which left them looking like deer caught in the headlights when racism/white nationalism raised its head.  In the meantime the Right jumped into their ole reliable hooptie, driving deep seated white supremacy beliefs into a mini-movement, effectively rekindling their base for the 2010 mid-term elections.

When you actually break down the election numbers, you can see the importance of demographic shifts and the voter turnout that brought this liberal/moderate coalition of Blacks, Asians, Latinos and young whites to victory. In winning approx 54% of the total votes cast, Obama won only 43% of the white vote (despite repeated cable pundits and anchors who keep claiming the that the overwhelming majority of whites voted for Obama), but over 95% of the Black vote and about 67% of the Latino and Asian vote.  How these numbers were flipped into proof of a “post-racial” America is a testament to the power of the media and feeblemindedness of liberals.  With the browning of America, racial coalition politics is more crucial in national elections and that should have been enough of a victory in speaking about how far the country has come.

Revenge of Identity Politics

Looking at the numbers, it is not a surprise that Obama won 43% of the white vote, considering the state of the country it should have been 63%. You would think that after a near collapse of laissez-faire capitalism and two wars with no end in sight, the need for change would be easy to see. But you can’t keep a good strategy down. As liberals were celebrating their kum-bai-ya moment, our right wing friends were regrouping, and their response was not less of a southern strategy but instead to turn up the fire.

Fox news led off with the attack on the New Black Panther Party showing how they supposedly intimidated white people on Election Day intimating the stealing of the election by the radical Obama. Next was the call after the election that the President-elect was going to take away their guns. So after the biggest spurt of gun buying in history was matched by the largest amount of death threats on a new President, something started looking a little shaky for the no more race crowd. Later the Birther movement rolled in with “he ain’t no American, that boy was born in Africa.”  Glen Beck calls the half-white Obama racist and says he hates white people, it’s really getting hot now. Then the health  care debate gives off the battle cry of Obama being a socialist, look at them czars he hired, lets bring the guns to the town halls. The Texas governor threatens to leave the union.  God bless them, they are as ugly as ever. If you thought the Willie Hortan adds of the 80’s were bad, take a look at what’s next. Rush Limbaugh turns a school fight where a white kid gets dropped, into a call for segregated buses to protect young whites against “Obama Nation”.

What are we to make of these attacks? They are going to intensify the racial tension because it’s the Right’s only path to victory in a majority white party. The strategy of course is even older than the southern strategy of the sixties. It was the Democratic party of the South that first employed its own version of this strategy after Republican Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation Act, insuring a loyalty of Southern whites for close to 100 years, until the 1960’s when Republicans employed it as a response to the civil rights movement.

Prior to last year the right wing was on a path to creating a permanent majority. The Christian right comprised the ground troops to the new neo-conservative anthem of embracing open markets and missionary wars as the path into heaven. It only increased the apathy of the general Black population in the electoral field on a national level. It was Republican overreaching in Iraq and the greatest economic crises in the US since the great depression that got Obama 40% of the white vote. On immigration the Republicans, who prior to their overt campaign to kick out all the Latino’s oops, they meant illegals were getting a much higher share of the Latino vote, pushed more Latinos to the left of the republican party.

Our response

As we look at the American economic order, the saying goes when America gets a cold, black people get the flu, well its more like the swine-flu at this point. Black unemployment rates, which traditionally are at recession levels, have now hit the stage of depression officially topping 15% to 25% in most regions of the country not to mention other societal stats that continue to place black people at the bottom of social-economic indicators of well being in this society). That order is not going to change by the actions of a moderate democratic party no matter who is in charge. However even for someone like myself that sees very little value in the American political system for long-term black interest, I can see how the Obama election rejuvenated black political involvement in this arena. This brings its own set of challenges, but the increased civic involvement is something that has to be taken as a positive overall. The limits of the US system to extract real change will only bring forth the need for a more profound “identity” politics for Black people. One that does not mirror what’s on the Right but instead uses the politics of self-determination to build institutions that are controlled by the black community and brings forth the issues that are of concern in our community despite who may be the dominate electoral party in charge.

In addition since the Republicans strategy is to pull more whites back over to them, or to back off their immigration stance and try and to split the Latino vote. The recession will mean more angry white folks who will continue blaming Barack Hussain Obama for everything the Bush and its neo cons created. How do you think Black people are going to respond to the attack of the first black President, they are going to defend him, and we should think about how to work with that, not just talk about Black bourgeoisie, or offer a critique from the left that does not include concern for Obama and his possible safety, but find ways to relate to that anger that speaks about the need to build institutions that can defend black “progress” or create a power base in the community.

The importance of stressing institution building for Black people in America has to become central to any argument in these political times. Why won’t right-wingers admit defeat and go away? It’s because they have the hardware and have built the institutions that solidifies their ability to get the word out and to regroup even after defeat. Fox news did not go away after the election it re-thought it’s position and came back even more nasty than before. Black identity politics should not duplicate the right at all, but it should lean that kum-bai-ya moments are just that, moments. Once the moment passes if our communities are not in any better shape than before then we have not done anything to meet our collective interest, even if an individual milestone has some ripple effect and is widely celebrated, by those who want us to be post-racial.

What do you think?

Working Paper:Reclaiming TARP, Reclaiming Public Housing

Since the fall of 2008 the United States Federal Government has purchased millions of foreclosed properties through the Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP. These acquisitions were made in an attempt to help stabilize the worlds financial markets, which were quite literally on the verge of collapse throughout the latter half of 2008.

The Land and Housing Action Group maintains that all of the properties purchased with public funds via the TARP program constitute public goods that must be utilized to fulfill a public need. To be more direct, we maintain that these homes are now in fact public housing, and that they must be used as such to fulfill the US government’s human rights obligation to provide adequate housing to all the citizens and residents under its jurisdiction.

We reject the approach being employed by the Obama administration, rooted in neo-liberal economics, which allows the banks to determine the use and ownership of the properties purchased and insured with public funds. This approach, although consistent with the imperatives of capitalism, is inconsistent with human rights and constitutes a fundamental violation of the government’s obligations to respect, protect and fulfill economic, social and cultural rights. Rather than allowing these properties to be resold and the profits privately appropriated by the banks, we maintain that these properties must be removed from the commodities markets and placed in the possession of local community land trusts to ensure that the economic, social,and cultural rights of impacted communities are progressively realize dutilizing the maximum available resources possessed by the government.

To this point, the concrete result of the TARP bailout has been to transfer of an astounding amount of public wealth (over 1.5 Trillion dollars) to private institutions and individuals to preserve their fortunes. While this transfer has helped forestall the collapse of the worlds financial markets, it has not stopped millions of families throughout the United States, particularly working class African American and Latino families, from being displaced and dispossessed from their homes and communities. In short, the banks have been saved, but the people have been abandoned.

The Land and Housing Action Group is encouraging everyone to join us in changing this shameful reality. We call on everyone committed to protecting and realizing the human right to housing to join us in building the “Take Back the Land” campaign and supporting the declaration that all the properties paid for with public funds must be turned into public housing immediately. It is only by building a mass direct action movement to Take Back the Land that we will realize the fulfillment of our human right to adequate housing.

For more information on how you can join or support the Take Back the Land campaign email housingrights[at]ushrnetwork.org.Or call 404.588.9761.

From the WLBT website:

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - As the new year approaches some African American communities are worried they will not be counted in the 2010 census.

“We believe it is from 30-50% of black men are historically under counted.  That’s actually a disservice to the black community, but it’s also a disservice to Mississippi,” said Jackson Ward 2 Councilman Chokwe Lumumba.

The People’s Task Force led by Councilman Lumumba met Saturday for the Fair Count To Fair Share Census Initiative.  According to the Census Bureau, Mississippi has the highest percentage of black residents of any state at 38%, but Fair Count to Fair Share organizers claim the numbers aren’t accurate.  They say the problems are census workers who have poor outreach methods in black communities and the people who don’t feel comfortable sharing information.

“When people come in the neighborhood that they don’t know, gathering information or attempting to gather information we are very reluctant to do that,” said Akil Bakari with the People’s Task Force.

Councilman Lumumba believes Jackson residents need to know that their information will be safe to make sure they are putting more resources into getting more counts of our communities,” said Lumumba Bandele of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.

Panthers & Lords

Films, Panels, and Reunion: December 3rd -12th, 2009.

People’s Assembly on Saturday December 12, 2009 (3PM – 6PM)