Police Investigate Officer in Critical Mass Video

Just what caused the cop to focus on this one guy?

It almost appears as if the cop got fed up with the whole thing (ever have
one of those moments?) and decided to abandon his post, throwing one last
temper tantrum as he headed toward the sidewalk. I think he probably
realized afterward that it was immature, bad judgment. However, once the
damage is done, there's no taking it back - especially in the age of
YouTube.

Which makes me wonder: What caused the cop to target this
guy? He was singled out by the cop quite obviously. I was
wondering if the guy yelled out some something the cop took
offense at or even had an offensive slogan on his shirt.
It looked to me that the cop decided to walk across the street
and just shoved the first bike that got in his way.

=v= This is not the first such incident by any means; just one
that was caught on videotape:

http://times-up.org/index.php?page=july-cm

=v= We'll probably never know for sure, unless the officer
decides to be open and truthful, but note that you'll see a
bicyclist going by with a video camera. The two officers are
first seen looking downtraffic, where this bicyclist has just
gone, and *then* the attacking officer swung into action.

=v= Good thing somebody else was filming.
_Jym_

Peter Cole wrote:
Cops really hate civil disobedience. Breaking the law (even trivial
laws) seems to be really intolerable to many if done in their presence,
and they take it personally. I don't know if cops get that way after
being on the job or the system selects them for those predilections, I
suspect the latter.

What if the cyclist was just on his way home from work when he
came across this group bike ride that happened to be going in
the same direction? What if he was riding in the lane where he
was because he just happened to think that it was the safest
place to ride under the conditions?

Would he still have been breaking the law?

If not, how do you tell him from the actual participants in the
group bike ride?

--
Steven O'Neill
Brooklyn, NY http://www.panix.com/~steveo

"Bill Davidson" wrote in message
...
Don Wiss wrote:
Police Investigate Officer in Critical Mass Video
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...al-mass-video/

Don www.donwiss.com/joyrides (e-mail link at page bottom).

The Smoking Gun has posted the criminal complaint against
the cyclist:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...9081bike1.html

How many lies can you spot?

Once again let me say I am on the cyclists side. But I will put forth the
hypothetical best possible case the cop could have made:

In the middle of the CM protest the officer intended to arrest a random
member of said protest in an attempt to cause the others to disperse. He
shouts to him to stop. He does not, so the officer stops him and arrests him
for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct which would both be at least not
contradicted by the video.

However his method of effecting the detention - basically knocking him off
the bike - was inappropriate and disproportionate use of force to the
situation at the very least.

And lying about it in a sworn statement... didn't Clinton get impeached
over something similar...

Peter Cole wrote:
recycled wrote:

Which makes me wonder: What caused the cop to target this guy? He was
singled out by the cop quite obviously. I was wondering if the guy
yelled out some something the cop took offense at or even had an
offensive slogan on his shirt. Something, anything!

It looked to me that the cop decided to walk across the street and just
shoved the first bike that got in his way.

Cops really hate civil disobedience. Breaking the law (even trivial
laws) seems to be really intolerable to many if done in their presence,
and they take it personally. I don't know if cops get that way after
being on the job or the system selects them for those predilections, I
suspect the latter.

From reading other articles, it appears the fellow in question is a
third generation police officer. So he's had plenty of time to be
inculcated with attitudes of longtime serving police officers before he
ever joined the force (for good or ill).

--
Dane Buson -
X windows. Warn your friends about it.

Steven M. O'Neill wrote:
Peter Cole wrote:
Cops really hate civil disobedience. Breaking the law (even trivial
laws) seems to be really intolerable to many if done in their presence,
and they take it personally. I don't know if cops get that way after
being on the job or the system selects them for those predilections, I
suspect the latter.

What if the cyclist was just on his way home from work when he
came across this group bike ride that happened to be going in
the same direction? What if he was riding in the lane where he
was because he just happened to think that it was the safest
place to ride under the conditions?

Would he still have been breaking the law?

If not, how do you tell him from the actual participants in the
group bike ride?


Happens all the time -- at least used to in the demonstrations I
attended, passersby assumed they had nothing to fear as they weren't
part of the demonstration, so didn't run from the cops -- and got clubbed.

recycled wrote:
In the middle of the CM protest the officer intended to arrest a random
member of said protest in an attempt to cause the others to disperse.

Understood.

He shouts to him to stop.

Not unless he's a ventriloquist and even then given how close the
camera (w/microphone) was, I think we would have heard him shouting.
He doesn't appear to be shouting at all. Also, when the police are
trying to get you to stop, they usually put their hand up -- which
he also did not do. This was the shoving equivalent of a sucker
punch. There was no warning at all.

He does not, so the officer stops him and arrests
him for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct which would both be at
least not contradicted by the video.

He picked one and went for it. It was a bad take down and a bad
arrest and he knew it. That's why he had to make up all the lies
in his deposition with the A.D.A. It was the only way to
legitimize it. Interestingly enough, at the end, that criminal
complaint explicitly states that anyone falsifying the information
in it is guilty of a misdemeanor. He must have been told that and
done it anyway. He should get jail time for it.

At most, the cyclist was guilty of the infraction of riding out in
the middle of the street blocking traffic. However, he got charged
with assaulting a police officer which is at least a misdemeanor but
could be a felony.

"Bill Davidson" wrote in message
...
recycled wrote:
In the middle of the CM protest the officer intended to arrest a random
member of said protest in an attempt to cause the others to disperse.

Understood.

He shouts to him to stop.

Not unless he's a ventriloquist and even then given how close the
camera (w/microphone) was, I think we would have heard him shouting.

While it does not show conclusively the cop was trying to communicate, the
low quality I think makes it at least arguable if he did try to assert it.

To be clear, I'm not saying he did yell to stop nor that he clamed to have.
Just that in my viewing the recording does not contradict the possibility.

He doesn't appear to be shouting at all. Also, when the police are
trying to get you to stop, they usually put their hand up -- which
he also did not do.

True enough. His body language does not look like he was attempting to
communicate to the rider to stop.

This was the shoving equivalent of a sucker
punch. There was no warning at all.

Maybe a little in that he did appear to be intentionally going for that
rider.

He does not, so the officer stops him and arrests him for resisting
arrest and disorderly conduct which would both be at least not
contradicted by the video.

He picked one and went for it. It was a bad take down and a bad
arrest and he knew it. That's why he had to make up all the lies
in his deposition with the A.D.A. It was the only way to
legitimize it. Interestingly enough, at the end, that criminal
complaint explicitly states that anyone falsifying the information
in it is guilty of a misdemeanor. He must have been told that and
done it anyway. He should get jail time for it.

At most, the cyclist was guilty of the infraction of riding out in
the middle of the street blocking traffic.

Actually given that he moved further to the left to avoid the cop, the rider
was responding as he should to avoid a collision.

Question though: Was this a one way street? It appears to be from the cars.
Also there is what looks like to be a faded bike-lane symbol on the left
side of the street. Left as in when the camera is pointing towards the cops.

Is there anyone who knows the exact intersection and where a diagram might
be?

However, he got charged
with assaulting a police officer which is at least a misdemeanor but
could be a felony.

At most I'd say resisting arrest by refusing to stop and disturbing the
peace or similar which I'm guessing in NYC would be misdemeanors. And would
only be appropriate if the cop did make some reasonable indication that he
was detaining the cyclist.

Since there can be no corrobation of a hypothetical call to stop except
perhaps if a bystander or the cops partner, and the cops own credibility has
been destroyed, by lying quite blatantly in his statement, he isn't going to
be believed where normally "cop said" vs. "arrestee said" is almost always
won by the cop.

My guess is some internal reprimand for the cop [being a rookie I doubt he
can be demoted] and a settlement with the cyclist, medical bills, bike
damage, plus 4 or 5 figures for pain an suffering with no admission of
fault.

On Jul 31, 11:18*am, "recycled" wrote:
"Bill Davidson" wrote in message

...

Don Wiss wrote:
Police Investigate Officer in Critical Mass Video
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...estigate-offic....

Don www.donwiss.com/joyrides (e-mail link at page bottom).

The Smoking Gun has posted the criminal complaint against
the cyclist:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...9081bike1.html

How many lies can you spot?

*Once again let me say I am on the cyclists side. But I will put forth the
hypothetical best possible case the cop could have made:

*In the middle of the CM protest the officer intended to arrest a random
member of said protest in an attempt to cause the others to disperse. He
shouts to him to stop. He does not, so the officer stops him and arrests him
for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct which would both be at least not
contradicted by the video.

*However his method of effecting the detention - basically knocking him off
the bike - was inappropriate and disproportionate use of force to the
situation at the very least.

My impression was that there was no attempt to try and stop the rider.
It was an unprovoked assault. Hell, you'd get a penalty for something
like that in Rugby.

John Kane Kingston ON Canada


*And lying about it in a sworn statement... didn't Clinton get impeached
over something similar...

I'm not up on US shinanigans but I don't think so. I believe he won
the vote

John Kane Kingston ON Canada

On Jul 31, 3:04*pm, "recycled" wrote:


*My guess is some internal reprimand for the cop [being a rookie I doubt he
can be demoted] *and a settlement with the cyclist, medical bills, bike
damage, *plus 4 or 5 figures for pain an suffering with no admission of
fault.


That's assuming the rider is not vindictive. Based on that video I'd
could see the rider pressing charges for aggrivated assault ( or
whatever the term is).

John Kane Kingston ON Canada