Officer who body-slammed cyclist indicted
The New York City police officer who was seen on YouTube last summer tackling a bicyclist in what appeared to be an unprovoked attack, has been indicted.
Patrick Pogan, a cop for just three weeks before a videotape appeared on YouTube that showed him slamming a cyclist to the ground without providing any warning, is charged with misdemeanor assault and felony counts for allegedly falsifying his report.
Pogan, 23, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday. He was released without bail and ordered to return to court on February 4, according to the Associated Press.
On June 25, Pogan was watching hundreds of bicyclists ride past him during a monthly protest known as "Critical Mass" when he is seen on the video running toward something off camera. Then, without any warning, he crashes into bicyclist, Christopher Long, who appears to be trying to avoid Pogan.
In his report, Pogan said that he warned the bicyclist to stop and that the cyclist intentionally rammed the policeman. Pogan's attorney told the AP that Pogan reacted to something Long did that was not visible on the tape.
That's not going to hold water, of course. What Pogan wrote in his report was that Long tried to steer his bike into Pogan and that he warned Long to stop. The video, taken by tourists, doesn't support that.
I've watched that video more than two dozen times and it still irritates me. The assault was bad enough, but Long had to spend the night and most of the next day in jail based on what Pogan wrote in his report.
Of the many contributions that YouTube has made to communication among the masses, is that it arms witnesses to wrongdoing with an unprecedented way to expose misdeeds. The video of the incident has been watched 1.8 million times.
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET. 
Was what the cop did wrong? Yes, absolutely, but he probably made a incorrect generalization about all bicyclists participating in the event before he even woke up that morning and then carried it out on an innocent singular cyclist...who really knows?
"Police" are made up of many ethnicities. You are getting severely off point, this is about control mechanisms in larger society.
Let's call a spade a spade, shall we? Guys like you are part of the problem. Period.
Those that defend cops and bad behavior everywhere because you're too afraid to label an individual or a group as what they really are because you might offend someone. Your rush to protect someone (i.e., the guilty) means the problem gets brushed aside.
I've got some news for you, cops everywhere, in large cities and small, more often than not are sick or at least have a screw loose. At least 50% (or more?) of cops are borderline psycho's, and they join "the force" so they can abuse others. The "desire to help" is often a cover up for a "desire to dominate".
The video illustrates what goes on all the time. Events don't always get reported, or if it does the "police report" is such a mythical creation that the "suspect" is victimized without any hope of the truth coming out...One doesn't have to "do" anything, as demonstrated by this video, to incur the wrath/anger/abuse of a sick individual carrying a weapon.
You want sick? Try LA cops (I've known several personally and at least one was very sick), I used to look away in shame and disgust as he related beatings he dished out. Rodney King wasn't about race. Those cops would have ganged up on a white guy in the same way. It's about power, dominance, and violence.
Come back to Boston where I've had a cop tell me he "could shoot me and get away with it" [his words, not paraphrasing] because I didn't leave my hands on the steering wheel while receiving a ticket on one of Boston's busiest downtown streets. It was 9:00 a.m., a bright Spring day, on a work day and I was caught in an intersection when the lights changed. He stopped two of us, but he let the other driver go (a black woman). I'm white, he was black and a racist, but also just violent. He got nothing out of abusing a woman on the street, but a white professional? Fair game... He could "shoot me"? For a traffic ticket? He didn't show up in court so the BS "ticket" was dismissed..
In short, you're part of the problem now and will continue to be until you wise up to the fact that there are serious problems with cops everywhere. Think about it. Does any sane person want to be a "cop"?
http://politicsoftechnology.blogspot.com/
More people are killed in cars each year than in homicides, natural disasters, and most natural causes. Heck, the war in Iraq is still behind in fatalities compared to car crashes. Police reducing the chance of crashes and encouraging safe driving IS protecting the citizens and keeping them out of danger.
Cutting the police force by 75% is foolish.
As for police speeding I do not have statistics on it as they are typically not cited nor statistics generated. While on duty though they are given that right if they can justify it, although its an enforcement issue and on that I do agree with you. Also keep in mind the average law enforcment officer has clocked more time behind the wheel than a lot of other drivers, and has been specifically trained on how to operate their vehicle at high speeds and adverse conditions. Yes they still do get into accidents, but far less than regular everyday drivers.
Up here in Canada we had an incident in which a few policemen tazer'd a fellow at the airport and that fellow ended up dying. The story that the cops initially reported to the news didn't jive at all with the video that came forward from a bystander who happened to video the whole thing.
Force all cops to videotape all interactions they have with the public. If they fail to do so, their "case" is thrown out for "lack of evidence". This will make it harder (not impossible) for the cop to get away with a bold faced lie like what happened here.
Yes they do a lot of things that are above the law, and yes a lot of them can be less than courteous, but what about the cops that risk their lives everyday in the worst neighborhoods in America? For every police officer who stretches the boundaries of decency, there are plenty of other officers who do that right thing and try to protect the community.
And as police, they are granted the unwritten/unspoken ability to go beyond law to protect and sometimes they abuse that right.
We can group the 10 or so cops that appear on youtube that commit a crime, or we can be respectful of that line of work and try to make sure this does not happen.
Look, no one likes the police but it is unfair to generalize and defame a job that requires that you put yourself in more danger than most people. I would not want to be an officer in South Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, or any urban area populated by gangs, drug dealers, and other dangerous members of society.
It is sometimes hard to defend the police. There are so many branches within branches of police forces, all doing different things. Its hard to see why you should respect a guy who waits at an intersection to just see if you make a complete stop before making a right turn on that red, or waiting for the old lady to completely clear the cross-walk, but I do have respect for them as a whole.
Imagine a world without an abundance of police is a little scary. People behave when a patrol car is around, people act "safer", more "lawful." I know the crap of cops, I have personal experience. I still respect them, and for any of you people here that just want to run this line of work in the mud, you go be a cop in South LA, and just give tickets. See how that messes with your head.
DetectiveBooby's point was that it is wrong to paint those 33,300 officers with the brush given by 3,700.
legalize prostitution, drugs, and gambling. Then tax and regulate them. Crime goes down, tax revenue goes up, the need for police goes down. But of course we would rather spend billions trying to prevent the use of prostitution, drugs, and gambling while violent crime organizations are built around providing those same items.
Unfortunately police work does draw a certain amount of weirdos who abuse their positions with their personal violence and power-corruption issues ... very much like how the priesthood attracts a small amount of sexual deviants.
Most policemen have good intentions ... but even they corrupt themselves and the system by standing behind the blue-badge of silence and not reporting the unlawful actions of their colleagues.
If police decide they don't like the job, or the pay isn't high enough, or it's too dangerous, or they don't get enough respect, then they are free to quit and get another job, just like the rest of us. Many people choose to be police officers because they truly believe they are serving the community. However, there are many ways to serve the community and many police choose police work because of their psychological make up and enjoy the power that comes with a gun and the ability to arrest people. Many police are as much criminals as the criminals they arrest. I worked as a valet at a hotel in Ocean City, MD one summer during college. The FOP had a convention at the hotel where I worked. They were the rowdiest, must unruly and destructive group of guests I saw all summer. The whole time they were there I spent my time walking drunken off duty policeman around the parking facilities pretending I couldn't locate their car until they got pissed off and gave up because they were too stinking drunk to drive (or notice that I walked them by their own car several times without them recognizing it). One guy was so drunk he handed me the "do you know who your dealing with" line to which I replied, "Yes, I'm dealing with a drunk who wants to get behind the wheel and I'm saving a life, maybe yours, and your career by not getting your car for you." Sure that's not all cops, but many if not most commit as many minor crimes as the average person does, they just don't get caught. I see cops several times a week in the heavy traffic area where I live and work driving recklessly and endangering law obeying drivers to cut across traffic lanes to change directions and chase a speeder or someone who cut a yellow light too close. Many times they are more dangerous in their pursuit of traffic violators than the the traffic violators themselves. When I was in college I saw the campus police (who were real State Troopers, not rent-a-cops) regularly harassing students who gathered to hang out in the communal areas in the housing for which their parents or they themselves were paying out the wazoo to live. They arrested several kids including myself when we pointed out that we were not loitering and had a right to hang out in the yard of our on-campus apartments which in fact was our home while at school. The cops cuffed us, took us to jail, finger printed us, took our mug shots, the whole time laughing and saying things like, "Daddy's little rich kids are wearing some pretty new jewelry today" (referring to our handcuffs) and expressing their disdain for all the spoiled "rich college brats" (no one I went to college with was wealthy). The judge at our trial said the cop who arrested us was completely wrong, but instead of dropping the charges, he put the case on "stet docket" which means that he was not ruling on the case and charges would go away over time due to the statute of limitations. He did this to prevent us from taking action against the police. We still had arrest records from then on for what??hanging out where we lived.
I don't owe the police any more respect for being a police officer than they owe me for being a Graphic Designer. In fact, they owe the public more respect because the public pays them, equips them weapons, and gives them the power to put people in jail or take their lives. The officer in this video will most likely get some sort of a break. Whatever his punishment, it will probably fall short of the most severe that the law calls for which is what he deserves. I hate how litigious our society has become, but I hope the guy on the bike sues the cop (and the NYPD if they don't exercise the harshest punishment for him) for every penny he can get to make a point. The cyclist and victim of assault spent a night in jail for doing nothing wrong, while the officer who assaulted him and falsely arrested him walked with no bail. The cop should have had to spend time in jail before making bail just like his victim who committed no crime had to do.
-R
This isn't a toddler with a toy gun, this is an officer of the law who has a real gun, with real bullets, and a real night stick who demonstrated his hurt feelings at past "inconsiderate" cyclists with a violent, brutal assault on a random citizen. There is no justifiable way to soft sell that no matter how you try.
Pogan's report states that the cyclist was weaving in and out of traffic "forcing multiple vehicles to stop abruptly or change their direction". If you watch the video, you can clearly see that there are no vehicles moving on 7th Avenue.
Even if you ignore the fact that Pogan falsified the events leading up to the takedown, you surely have to agree that he falsified the portion of the report that takes place directly on camera. There's no need to reserve judgment; Pogan lied on an official report and got caught.
All of this is secondary to the fact that Pogan blatantly lies in the portion of the report that takes place on camera. That in itself is enough to nail Pogan.
ChesterKatz: Bicycles are vehicles. If the cyclist was a danger to others, take him out!
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That's unbelievable. The video actually showed the *cop* was a danger to others. Can we "take him out" too? Personally, if that bicyclist pulled out a .45 pistol and shot that cop dead after that tackle, I'd call it "self defense".
There IS an nonofficial code of silence when it comes to infractions by the police. This is no different than for military personnel, physicians, firemen, or any other group of people with stressful or hazardous jobs in common. To a certain extent, it is a good thing and is necessary for the cohesiveness and effectiveness of the group itself. The bad part is this is largely what prevents people from whistle blowing when they see something that is borderline between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. There's a very good reason why the 5th amendment exists. Personally, I prefer having the option to NOT act or speak.
Don't get me wrong, I have friends that are cops. I don't hate cops, just the crazy ones or the ones that abuse their power.
- by SebastianShaw December 17, 2008 1:03 PM PST
- Some people are just bad people. Unfortunately, putting on a uniform confers a degree of authority they should never have and means the law starts out on their side, giving them a big advantage.
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(48 Comments)Imagine if this tourist hadn't happened to film it and hadn't come forward with the video.