Critical Attack on Critical Mass
I've written about it a few times before, but just recently found out there's a critical mass in other cities. Namely, New York.
The idea is, if you have a bike, use it on Critical Mass day, instead of a car. In San Francisco, this is popular. This is accepted. One of these days I will get my shit together and take some pictures for you so you can see that even on non-CM days, there are still lots of people on bikes in the street.
Anyway, this morning I found out a cop in Manhattan body slammed a guy biking along, making him fall over. I watched the video, and during the slow-motion part you can see the cop actually runs to make contact, despite the biker trying to veer away from the cop. The cop is now on desk duty, but I don't think that's enough. Let's say the biker called out, "Fuck you, Pig!" as he tried to ride by. Even under that scenario, the cop still is not within his rights to do what he did. Maybe the biker gave the cop the finger. Still.
A cop's job is to serve and protect. (Insert your own joke about serving here.) I am not really clear as to why this police officer wasn't suspended without pay. Damn, I wish I worked at the law firm that represents the PBA so as to find out the details.
Can a person get away with making a citizen's arrest on a cop?
Okay, so the article has been updated. Apparently Critical Mass is not a protected program in New York the way it is in San Francisco and it seems NYPD feels right about arresting bikers. If I am remembering correctly, there are bike lanes to the right of the car lanes in New York. That's where people on bikes are supposed to ride, I guess.
So if the bike riders are not staying in their little bike lanes I can see why they are being arrested. Obstructing traffic and all. Okay, that's fair. However. Are you really supposed to be pulling people over for arrest by body slamming them to the ground? No, no you are not. What if that boy had hit his head wrong and broken his neck? What if in the midst of body slamming the biker, the cop caused the biker to fall into an innocent person on the sidewalk?
Is anyone else offended that Christopher Long, the guy on the bike, is mentioned by name, but the cop's name was not released? I am having a hard time seeing the fairness of all this.
The idea is, if you have a bike, use it on Critical Mass day, instead of a car. In San Francisco, this is popular. This is accepted. One of these days I will get my shit together and take some pictures for you so you can see that even on non-CM days, there are still lots of people on bikes in the street.
Anyway, this morning I found out a cop in Manhattan body slammed a guy biking along, making him fall over. I watched the video, and during the slow-motion part you can see the cop actually runs to make contact, despite the biker trying to veer away from the cop. The cop is now on desk duty, but I don't think that's enough. Let's say the biker called out, "Fuck you, Pig!" as he tried to ride by. Even under that scenario, the cop still is not within his rights to do what he did. Maybe the biker gave the cop the finger. Still.
A cop's job is to serve and protect. (Insert your own joke about serving here.) I am not really clear as to why this police officer wasn't suspended without pay. Damn, I wish I worked at the law firm that represents the PBA so as to find out the details.
Can a person get away with making a citizen's arrest on a cop?
Okay, so the article has been updated. Apparently Critical Mass is not a protected program in New York the way it is in San Francisco and it seems NYPD feels right about arresting bikers. If I am remembering correctly, there are bike lanes to the right of the car lanes in New York. That's where people on bikes are supposed to ride, I guess.
So if the bike riders are not staying in their little bike lanes I can see why they are being arrested. Obstructing traffic and all. Okay, that's fair. However. Are you really supposed to be pulling people over for arrest by body slamming them to the ground? No, no you are not. What if that boy had hit his head wrong and broken his neck? What if in the midst of body slamming the biker, the cop caused the biker to fall into an innocent person on the sidewalk?
Is anyone else offended that Christopher Long, the guy on the bike, is mentioned by name, but the cop's name was not released? I am having a hard time seeing the fairness of all this.
Labels: Commute, New York State of Mind, Overthinking
posted by Green at 7/28/2008 03:45:00 PM
10 Comments:
Whoa!
Was he pissed that he was assigned street patrol during CM or what? Sheesh.
That video is unreal. It seems like such a futile exercise to be trying to "enforce" critical mass- doesn't seem like it's going to stop it, it just changes the tone from a sort of gentle protest (SF) to a really antagonistic thing between the bikers and the police (NY). Seems shortsighted to me.
funny. I just saw this elsewhere and reposted it on myspaz... I dislike critical mass, really, but this was truly a new low for the NYPD and I'm disgusted.
I saw that video on the news last night. Pretty awful. I will say there are a lot of bikers here in NY who are pretty reckless and dangerous about the way they ride. But I am not, NOT excusing what this cop did. He should be fired. And you're right - what's with not releasing his name??
My Lord!!! After seeing that in slomo, I'm surprised that the cop didn't lose his job completely. That was just brutal!
I followed the link, and the name is now mentioned. The cop's name is Patrick Pogan. But does knowing that somehow make things fair? Come to think of it, I don't need to know the name of the cyclist either, to put myself in his place. So now, people can look up the cyclist, send flowers to his place or just wish him well. That's nice. But now, people can also look up the cop, stalk him, and make the rest of his life miserable. Is that justice then?
I would love to bitch slap the guy, but should I really have the information to be able to do so?
unreal! can the cyclist charge the police officer with assault?
Hillary, my guess is excessive force, but I don't know for sure. But really, there are ways of pulling people over to arrest them, and I'm pretty sure body slamming them is not one of the ways the police academy teaches.
Jennie, the police officer's name should be public because turn-about is fair play. It's my belief that the bike rider was doing something illegal, but also my belief the cop did something illegal as well.
Obviously the cop shouldn't be stalked - I'm not a fan of breaking laws in general, no matter how much people deserve things. But hopefully people will write to the cop's captain and the Mayor urging them to consider suspending the cop and perhaps ordering him to take some anger management classes, as well as some reviewing of proper procedures or whatever. It will be interesting to see what happens with this.
He body slammed him? That sound so completely unnecessary. Desk duty shouldn't be the solution to everything.
I am concerned about this critical attack on critical mass having caused critical lack of new posts on this blog. HELLO??? Didn't we already have this conversation?
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