A New York City officer is under investigation after the video below showed him body-checking a bicyclist at a Times Square demonstration called the Critical Mass Ride. What is astonishing is that The biker, Christopher Long, of Hoboken, N.J., was arrested because he was obstructing traffic in the heart of Times Square, a criminal complaint said. He was charged with attempted assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. The officer has now been identified as Patrick Pogan, a 22-year-old rookie cop. click here.
This video shows the officer knocked the bicyclist across the street in the incident. What is clear is that the other officer witnessed the whole the attack. The question is whether that official reported the incident as he is required to do. The controversy arose after the clip was posted on YouTube. If the partner did not report or accurately describe the incident, there should be two officers on desk duty.
The fact that Long, 29, was hit with so many charges only magnifies the abuse — and again raises the question of the other officer’s knowledge and collusion. At a minimum, this appears excessive force calculated to injure the suspect.
Reports indicate that Long may have “squirmed and kicked.” This would be the basis for the resisting arrest and attempted assault charges. The concern, however, is that we have seen unlawful arrests or abusive treatment of suspects were they have been hit with such charges to try to justify the conduct of the officers. The video does not show what Long was doing before passing the officers. However, there were dozens of bikers around him and it is hard to see how he was guilty of obstructing traffic where the others were not. That charge appears to be the justification for the arrest and the linchpin for the attempted assault, disorderly, and resisting charges.
For the full story, click here.
My point was; you get what you pay for, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
I think it was actually a audition for a “Policmen gone Wild” video.
Maybe the bicyclist pulled an illegal “brody” prior to entering video frame.
Or, the bicyclist was practicing hog calling, here piggy piggy, sueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and Mr. Policeman took offense.
After watching that video, there should be at least one ex-cop on the New York Police force. It is obvious from the video that the bike rider was attemtpting to steer clear of the officer and the officer intercepted him and knocked him off the bike. This is a case of abuse and assault by the officer that hit the rider and Prof. Turley is correct that the second officer also saw what his partner did and should have reported it. Zakimar might be correct that the Police Officers might be underpaid and understaffed, but that is no excuse for assault and no excuse for the City to bring charges against a bike rider who was assaulted. This group regularly stages these bike protests so the police should have had experience in handling the crowds of on-lookers and the large numbers of bike riders. That rider could have been seriously injured by the police officers blatant assault. I hope the rider is successful in defending himself on the criminal charges. I can’t imagine a prosecutor would allow this to proceed if he/she watch this video. There are plenty of witnesses on the street that could be called to back up the rider’s story. I wonder if the two policemen got any statement’s from the witnesses on the street. The City should be getting ready to reach deep into its pockets to pay the civil damages on this one.
Thank God for the video camera, or this guy would be spending a long time in jail. I would urge the victim to sue the police department. I thought this kind of thing only happened in L.A. and to Blacks. I guess when you pay $40 000 per year for such a dangerous job, it’s hard to find ONLY decent, civilized, and educated people.