Tuesday, July 29, 2008
News / News Bites Truth in video . . .
Posted by Michael Miner on Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 3:27 PM
Apparently justice took a U-turn in New York City. A video anonymously posted on YouTube catches a New York City police officer body-checking a biker into the curb as last Friday's Critical Mass rally passed through Times Square. According to Newsday, the guy on the bike, Christopher Long, was accused of pedaling into the cop. He was arrested and charged with attempted assault, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct. That's not the story the video tells -- and after it surfaced, says Newsday, rookie officer Patrick Pogan was put on modified duty.
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I read on another blog that he was carrying something that looked like a weapon, which you can sort of almost clearly see in the video. Not saying the cop did the right thing, but at least it explains it a little bit. It wasn't just an over-reacting cop who was tired of being spat upon and called a fucking pig all night.
Something that looks like a weapon? Like what? A bike lock? A air pump? Sorry that explains nothing. As for being spit on and called a pig, where are you gettin this info? Or is it just an assumption because they bike riders who those "hippie type guys"?
which you can sort of almost clearly see in the video No. What you see protruding from his left hand are his "bullhorn" shaped handlebars. Very popular with the kids these days.
>which you can sort of almost clearly see in the video >>No. What you see protruding from his left hand are his "bullhorn" shaped handlebars. Very popular with the kids these days. He has bullhorns (handlebars) and a dark messenger bag with a red hip pouch. Being a biker in New York, I can't see how two things on your back and handle bars for steering could be confused for a weapon.
The cop should be fired and charged with assault. End of story.
Not only do I only see handlebars - no weapon, but no weapon was mentioned in the complaint. The complaint says that Long steered towards the cop. Sure looks like he was trying to steer away from him and the cop sped up to hit him.
How did the first Mayor Daley put it -- the police are there to preserve disorder...
Thank Jebus someone caught this on tape and made people aware of it or Christopher Long (the guy on the bike) would be royally screwed. Now we can all watch as the police union swings into action and unspools the thin blue line. Hopefully some sort of justice will be done, but don't hold your brath. But, hey, it's not like the cop rammed a plunger up the guy or shot him to death on his wedding night with 37 bullets.
You can be sure the cop will get a minor suspension or some other slap on the wrist, and then be reinstated, wherein he can abuse someone again.
You can see the cyclist turn to his left to avoid the Cop; the Cop widens his stride to make up for it then lays his shoulder into him. I bet he was the kid picking on the other kids when he thought no one was looking. That is the sort of action that causes people to call them PIGS. As they say one bad apple…
I agree this looks really bad, but you shouldn't assume everything is on this tape. First of all, we don't know whether or not the cop was telling him to stop. We don't know whether or not the guy did something previously (like hit another biker or something) that we can't see. I notice the cop watching for this guy, like he was targeting him. Maybe that was for a good reason. Maybe he saw him hit someone with his bike, told him to stop and the biker didn't and tried to get away. just sayin... you can't look at a video or picture and just assume everything that is not in it.
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