The cops from "Don't Tase Me Bro" have stepped it up

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20100316225651588

On Tuesday March 2nd, when an international graduate student, Kofi Adu-Brempong was having a "nervous breakdown" in his apartment, a concerned neighbor phoned 9-1-1. The University of Florida Police Department responded not by bringing in mental health workers to stabilize the situation, but by breaking down his door, shooting him twice with a taser, three times with bean-bag shotgun shells, and once in the face with an M-4 (a combat-grade automatic rifle) - all reportedly in 30 seconds. Kofi Adu-Brempong is now in the hospital in critical condition, and due to the assumption that anyone having a mental breakdown is a threat, he is facing criminal charges for possessing a weapon (his cane that he uses to walk due to his polio).

Quotas in NYC

NEW YORK (WABC) -- 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.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/investigators&id=7305356