Posted on 07/30/2008 10:57:36 AM PDT by LibWhacker
“swerved at the last second to ram Pogan. That’s my interpretation, supported both by video and Pogan’s sworn complaint, and I’m sticking to it!”
you’re nuts.
Sounds like a lie to me!
That’s my interpretation, supported both by video and Pogan’s sworn complaint, and I’m sticking to it!
_______
Object lesson in why eyewitness testimony is deemed so unreliable. Our personal biases color our perceptions. And it’s not just you, it’s both sides of yesterday’s debate.
Those who are inclined to view the cops as JBTs saw one thing, those who are inclined to intensely dislike the biking protesters saw something quite different.
You are insane. The officer allowed 40 cyclists to go by and then simply crowded the guy to the edge or the street and knocked him down. There was no command to halt or anything like it.
Indeed, this statement is completely disproved by the video.
The officer gave no order whatsoever and the biker did not swerve toward the officer.
Belief that this statement is true after viewing the video is proof one suffers from recto-cranial inversion and boot polish disease.
Those with eyes (and no dog in this fight) can watch the cop advance towards the cyclist and shove him off his bike.
On the other thread, there were at least a couple of people honest enough to say that since it was a probable leftist getting knocked off the bike, that they thought it was great.
I’d much rather hear that than the ridiculous assertion that some form of command to stop was given, then the bike plowed into the cop, etc. when it’s available for all to see.
It is amazing that some people will bend over backwards to defend a criminal just because the criminal has a badge, yet they believe support civil society.
I usually give cops the benefit of a doubt, but the video speaks for itself.
Those with eyes (and no dog in this fight) can watch the cop advance towards the cyclist and shove him off his bike.
________
That is what I saw also. And I dislike neither the cops nor the civilly disobedient. But ... check out the storm drain at nearly the exact spot where the cop exploded into the biker. Could he have tried to miss that and come too close for comfort to the cop who then reacted (albeit with an apparently unnecessary forearm shiver).
Watch the video link at Smoking Gun, especially the slow motion. The cop watches dozens go by and then stares the one guy down, starts walking towards the curb as he is staring. The guy on the bicycle tries to avoid him but the cop body checks him for no reason.
If there had been no one with a camera, the cop would just be another thug with a badge still on the force, assaulting people and arresting them and putting them in jail simply because he could.
But don’t worry, this cop will end up on some small north eastern town’s police force within a couple of months.
The cop provided a reason -- he was attempting to stop him for his illegal activities, and in the process it got a bit rough.
Well, I don’t have audio on this computer, so if you say Pogan didn’t give an order, I’ll believe you. Can you say another officer didn’t give the order?
IMO, everyone who called Pogan a liar yesterday, owes him an apology. He didn’t lie about anything.
I don't.
He wasn’t cheered for knocking a leftist off a bicycle. He was cheered for knocking a thug protester engaging in illegal uncivil protest to the ground effectively ending the scofflaw’s disturbance of the peace.
I’m no fan of liberal weinie activists, but if you think that video supports the officer’s account of the events, then I recommend you have your eyes checked.
I witnessed a road-hog bicyclist swerve right into that officer's stiff arm, attempting to run him down and hurt him. Then the drugged-out hippie Obama supporter fell down on purpose to exaggerate the incident in an attempt to have the brave young police officer's career ruined.
So police pull over all speeders in a pack when they are exceeding the speed limit? Or do they pick one out of the herd?
Has any judge ever dismissed a speeding ticket on the defense “others were doing it too”?
I agree. Can’t you see Long lean into the officer at the last second? You just don’t do that if a cop’s trying to arrest you.
So, if you are jay walking, a cop is justified in hitting you with his billy club without commanding you to stop? If you do a slow and go, he can ram your car before he even hits the lights? I hope this JBT goes to jail for a very long time.
Neither side in this police action behaved in a civil manner.
The criminal on the bike does NOT support civil society. That is why he was riding with the “ACT UP” of the bicycle community.
Watch the video again carefully. Watch what Long does at the very last second. Pogan was fully justified in decking that POS. If it had been me, I would’ve REALLY put a hit on him for pulling that crap!
If a flash mob of 20 sprinters runs you down on the sidewalk, is that willful assault? Or a “friendly prank”?
If I’m jay walking, and a police officer asks me to stop, I will. If I refuse, then the cop has a right to make me stop.
I don’t care if those bike riding a-holes in Critical mass get run over by a city plow.
They pick one out, but they don’t do it by ramming his vehicle. However, the cop could have ordered any number of them to stop, instead he chose to “teach them a lesson”. t is not the cop’s job to dish out punishment.
You’re right.
Does anybody think the guy dove off his bike and onto the sidewalk, unlawfully pulling the cop after and on top of him?
I’m thinking of a longshoremen’s strike in SF back in the 30’s when the media reported that some strikers threw themselves onto the bayonets of national guardsmen.
Yes, but the cop did NOTHING to try to stop the guy other than slam him to the ground. I guess you would be okay if the police got your attention by hitting you up the side of the head before he wrote you a ticket because you are advocating nothing less than legalized police terrorism.
Yes, but it doesn’t look like a storm drain to me. There is no grating in it, as you’d expect to see in a storm drain, which could cause a cyclist to crash. No, it looks like a solid, metal utility access door of some kind to me. A little rough to roll over on a bike, granted, but not a reason to choose instead to ram a cop.
Not true. Pogan moved to intercept him. It was obvious. I mean, after you've broken the law and you see a cop rapidly closing the distance between him and you, you know what to do -- and it's not to try to escape or to try to ram the cop.
I have no opinion either way. But I wonder if the cop saw something behind the “cameraman” that we didn’t see. We do see the cop watch the bicyclist come at him. We can’t see what the cop was watching.
i know that is a stretch of an analogy, but just hear me out.
i have worked these demonstrations a number of times. you can yell "stop" until you are blue in the face. they will not stop for a cop on foot.
IF this bicyclist was weaving in an extreme manner, moreso than the other cyclists, he should have been stopped and ticketed. was this level of force necessary? not sure. i wasn't there. i would like to see the entire encounter.
One thing we don’t know is whether or not the officer got a call from another officer with instructions to stop this guy.
I watched the vid 10 times and what u say happened didn’t happen. You want to see it, you hope its true, but it isn’t. And yes as a matter of fact I am an expert in video as well as digital photos. What you see did not happen. What u call the “last second” actually occurred AFTER the cop had his forearm raised and his body in motion toward the cyclist. Elapsed time of the entire “swerve” before impact initiated be the cop was .162 seconds. If the cop can react to that he needs to be in the NFL cause that’s as fast as you blink.
I think you are right about the lack of storm drain grating, but every additional time I look at the video in full screen mode, I see the cop move quicker to intercept the biker in order that he can deck the biker. If the cop fell to his knees, I’d have to suggest that it was the momentum of his exploding into the biker that caused the fall. JMO.
NO, we see the cop moving towards the curb while watching the cyclist. Then we see the cyclist move even further to the curb to try to avoid him. At the last instance, we see the cyclists brace for impact as the cop strikes him.
But the officer himself says in his complaint that a command was given. Do you automatically think all cops are liars? I mean, c’mon, the kid’s 22 years old. Probably highly idealistic as well. He was just doing his job.
i assure you 100% that did not happen. my above post has my opinion of the situation.
No? You can see behind the camera? WoW!
The criminal with the badge is charged with FIRST OBEYING THE LAW and then enforcing the law.
The citizen on the bike was one of many riding and I did not see other being knocked off their bike and being taken into custody. It is also not legal to selectively enforce the law.
So a cyclist riding on the wrong side of the road is the equivalent of a madman shooting innocent children in a school? I guess that we should all be glad that you aren’t a cop, or scared for our lives if you are.
Okay, but remember, only Pogan had a view of Long’s face and was in the best position to judge his intentions.
His sworn statement makes no mention of that. Don’t you think it would?
Yeah. It would.
I’ve seen a NYPD scooter cop ram a Critical Masshole of his bike a few years ago. I guess it’s a mob mentality that keeps the Masshole from obeying the officer’s commands.
Once force was used to stop that cyclist, a female Masshole whined, “Why are you doing this to us!?!” The way she said it was as if she really couldn’t put together the massive gridlock they were creating plus ignoring a police officer’s command with the officer’s actions.
If the video contains all contact and communication between the cop and the cyclist, then the cop is a thug and a liar.
However, after seeing articles on this event yesterday, I started doing some research on Critical Mass, and learned a few things. There is no organization, there is no set route, and they can occasionally do what they call a Cyclone in order for the slower cyclists to catch up to the group.
The cop and the cyclist could easily have encountered each other, where that lawful order was issued, minutes or hours prior to the video being shot, if the cyclist was on a second (or more) trip around the block.
my point was that a verbal command is not necessary in many instances. especially if by the time you yell "stop" the biker is 5 feet past you.
and by me saying that i have worked these demonstrations before, i thought it would be self-evident that i am an NYPD cop. but i guess you only read a very small amount of my post, were outraged, and responded accordingly. good work.
and please do not say that i am defending this cop. i have done no such thing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.