NEW YORK CITY'S SILLY SUMMONS

NPR's Margot Adler reported yesterday morning that the New York Daily News and other media outlets have been running readers' submissions of "silly summons" being issued by over-zealous city police to residents. One such resident, whose name I can't recall, was issued a $20 ticket for sitting on a milk crate in front of his store, while another received a ticket for sitting on the stairs in a subway station. New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who was interviewed by Adler for the story, responded to charges that city hall has quietly set quotas for ticket writers by saying something along the following lines:

"We don't have ticket quotas for our officers. What we do have are 'performance measurements' that we hold our officers accountable to, but we don't have quotas!"

Mike, come one... is there really a difference? Click here to listen to NPR's report.

What's even more "silly" to me is the three-strikes law. You can steal a comic book and if it's your third strike, end up in jail for life.