Update:
NEW YORK (CBS) ― A New York City police officer was stripped of his gun and badge Monday after he was caught on video slamming a cyclist in motion to the ground. The cyclist was among over a hundred other “Critical Mass” riders passing through Times Square Friday evening, when witnesses say — and as a video posted on YouTube shows — two officers approach him. What happens next is disturbing. One of the officers intercepts the rider, identified as Christopher Long of Bloomfield, N.J., and apparently deliberately shoves him hard as he rides by, sending the cyclist hard to the pavement.
Craig Radhuber was taking part in the ride, and witnessed the incident. “And the one spun around, saw a bicyclist and grabbed him off his bicycle. And then the other policeman jumped on top of him and the two were wrestling, wrestling this guy down trying to arrest him,” he told CBS 2. Radhuber had not yet seen the video until CBS 2 showed it to him. “Wow!” he said watching it for the first time. “I was so upset when I saw this thing happen.” Police have placed the officer, identified as Patrick Pogan, on desk duty pending the outcome of a department investigation. Pogan told officials that Long was obstructing traffic and that the biker was actually trying to run him down.
Long, 29, was charged with attempted assault, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct.
Here’s a clue to the idiot cop: Cameras are EVERYWHERE MORON, and they can be used against you too! The fact that they can charge the rider with assault just shows how corrupt the system is.
Found by Pete.
BAD COP!! No doughnut!
N Y Jets could use him.
Sorry, these critical mass bikers are out of control nut cases. The cops should chase them and run them down with squad cars. All they do it disrupt other law abiding citizens trying to go about their business.
I’m not anti bike – I’m pro. I commuted by bike for many years in a Boston. I’ve also seen these wackos do this in Boston and wished the cops would do what I saw in this video.
These jerks tried this in our town and the cops funnelled them in and arrested the whole narcissistic bunch for creating a hazard and obstructing traffic. The idiots haven’t tried it since.
Well, if you flout the law in front of a cop don’t be surprised if you come across a grumpy pissed off cop that clubs you in the head.
I can imagine the arrest report
“I observed a terrorist organization taking part in a mass illegal protest. When I was able to I attempted to detain an individual. The individual then attempted to avoid me. I then prevented the individual from attempting to flee.”
I mean what do you expect when you break the law? Sometimes you get clubbed or forcefully dismounted. You might have had the best of intentions, but when you break the law sometimes it fights back.
If he did that in front of the crows imagine the wonderful community contact he is making in the middle of the night on desolate streets.
This rider looked targeted to me. The cops let 50 people go by with no issue and then BAM this guy gets it?
In my town the a couple of cops have figured out that people with outstanding warrants (usually pot possession, sometimes other stuff) ride with Critical Mass. Then the cops pick the guy off right in the middle of the ride.
I’m wondering if it wasn’t something like that.
Awesome! The Cops should take all these idiots out and lock them the hell up. They are obstructing traffic. More like ‘Critical Mass Morons’.
Man, I hate Critical Mass. There have been many times that all I wanted was to cross the street on foot but couldn’t because a bunch of dumbasses want to screw things up for others.
While what that cop did is exactly what I always imagine doing, I still don’t think there is any defense for it. Yeah, the guy on the bike is an ass, yeah he should have been wearing a helmet, but still a cop shouldn’t take matteres into his own hands. The city needs to get serious about stopping such unsafe actions on public streets, and start arresting and fining people that participate in critiacal mass.
laxdude, I’m generally on the side of police, and when reading your comments before watching the video I thought you were probably right. But have you seen the video? No order to stop; the ‘attempt to evade’ was more accurately an attempt to avoid a collision; that cop committed an unprovoked battery on that biker!!
Sorry – I want to support the police – but that fool (the cop) should be fired, sued civilly (along with his employer the city), and prosecuted criminally. I just wish there was a law making violent crimes by police inherently more serious than violent crimes by non-empowered-to-use-violence people.
Wait a minute, exactly what was doing to ‘flout the law’?
Bicycles have the same right of way as a motorized vehicle.
Give me a break, there was no reason for this unprovoked attack. I hope this cop loses his job, sees some jail time, and gets his ass kicked as a result.
Interesting video. I have to agree with #7. We don’t know what happened prior to this ‘take-down’. Maybe the rider had already been ordered to stop an had ignored that order? Maybe he assaulted a cop a ways back? I’ll wait until all the evidence is in before I decide. If there was no previous altercation, then I won’t support the cops actions.
Two things of interes:
1. It looks like the guy had something in his right hand? Guitar
2. Notice what happens to his bike after the altercation. Some riders are taking it away just as the video ends.
I have to say.. I really enjoyed that.
Mass-holes do nothing to further the bike agenda, and generate a lot of ill will in general. People on bikes seem to think that the laws of the road do no appy to them. They do not stop at stop signs. They ride unpredictably, weaving in and out of traffic, and then they are outraged when they are almost hit.
Looked to me quite clear what happend:
The bicyclist failed to yield to the pedestrian, a cop.
The cop started to walk back to the sidewalk, biker did not stop.
Cycylist was clearly at fault.
What, you think the cop singled out that ONE GUY from the whole crowd???
Um. That guy just got done spraying some spectators trying to cross the street with pepper spray.
#11 on point 2. I thought that was strange. We also have no idea what that guy did off camera that the cop saw and we didn’t.
Thats quite something i bet he was targeted. Im sorry but that cop should be fired whether the bikers were obstructing traffic is another matter.
It also looks to me as if the guy was singled out..and from a distance.
Are you saying the bicyclist was spraying bystanders with pepper spray? Or the cop was spraying people.
Cops like that get shot in my neighborhood.
These bicyclists in NYC should be glad that they don’t issue the cops there tazers.
Like the first comment said…
BAD COP… NO DOUGHNUT!
This cop should have his doughnuts taken away for a long, long time. Though the person on the bicycle may have been breaking some law, the cop had no excuse to use violence on him. Anyone who has driven in NYC, knows that there is a need for bicycle lanes, and for enforcement of said lanes. It makes absolutely no sense to drive in Manhattan, when the public transportation is so good. That is unless you have to transport large amounts of cargo. IMNSHO, they should ban all private cars from midtown, period!
I find it amazing how many people justify violence on others. Just because they do not agree with what they are doing. So “crazy” cyclist have no right to pretest and demand more bike lanes and respect from motorist? It’s okay to run them down?
You can be against what they are doing. But to wish bodily harm on others is disturbing to say the least.
This looked pretty bad to me. I’ll try not to judge without the facts. However, I’m having a hard time understanding what I did see.
I’ll be careful riding through Times Square. Actually, I’d avoid Times Square anyway. I’m not even thrilled to walk through it. Too many tourists.
As for the issue that these guys are presumably trying to push, a city can be friendly to people or to cars, but not both. — Enrique Peñalosa
Here’s a really great video on the subject.
So some of you think that the guy in the bike in this video probably deserved it but the guy in the car in the other story about critical mass didn’t? So I guess if someone hits you it is bad unless that guy has a badge and then you deserved it?
Gotta love the people defending this indefensible action.
If he was a threat, why was the cop just meandering over and not walking towards him? If he had harmed someone or another cop, why wasn’t the second cop going after him too?
You people want to live in a police state if you want to defend this criminal behavior.
If this cyclist really had done something criminal, wouldn’t the cop who assaulted him have said something to his partner a foot away and both brought him down?
Of course the cop was in the wrong, he needs to be fired, fined, and put in jail.
#21 “I’ll be careful riding through Times Square. Actually, I’d avoid Times Square anyway. I’m not even thrilled to walk through it. Too many tourists.”
Agreed. And riding through it in the manner they did is irresponsible. The cop appears to be in the wrong. However, they wanted to piss off people and they apparently did. Mission accomplished?
#21 – Scottie
>>a city can be friendly to people or to
>>cars, but not both. —
Check out Minneapolis some day. Bike lane down the middle of Hennepin Avenue (the main drag), bike lanes all over town, bike paths out to the suburbs (also suitable for walking, rollerblading, skateboarding, what-have-you). Skywalks connect all the buildings in the Downtown region, so you needn’t interact with the traffic if you’re on foot.
Easy to drive in, easy not to drive in, easy to live in.
@#11 in particular, but an issue many fail to see with C.Mass riders: In NY state as in many others there is a clear legal status of how and where you can legally ride the bicycle. Every single rider in this video violated those rules. The whole point of C.M. is to block the traffic by violating traffic rules. To “raise the issues” C.M. riders would claim. As an avid cyclist I’d say the real reason they do this is to spite others. I am for the arrest of the every single one of them same as I’d be for arrest of every single driver who intentionally drives through red lite or drives in the wrong direction on a highway, particularly in an intentionally organized group intent on disruption.
Can police stop being PC and put the stop to this insanity?
Finally, I ride through NYC frequently and have few NYC “Century” bike rides behind me. Without a single issue in traffic. NYC is friendly to the bikes and if you are non-Critical Mass bicyclist please do consider visiting the city for the next well organized and orderly Century bike ride early in September… Great event for the reasonable cyclists.
26-your long winded rant addresses exactly NOTHING in the video. If you feel the cops were out to bust this thing up, why did they let all the other riders go by? Oh wait, that’s because your point has nothing to do with what happened to the video.
Try harder next time.
Certain Critical Mass cyclists are “known to” the local cops in every city. Not surprising he was picked out.
Disclosure: I’m a hard core cyclist (raced, tour, commute, play, etc) and hate critical mass, urban planners (bike lanes, what a waste of money), and every political cyclist organization. My criteria for critical mass (and everyone else): “Would I want to have a beer with these guys?”
Also, Lycra is a privilege, not a right.
I just heard that US Atty might consider RICO for this “organization”.