Officer Patrick Pogan testified in court that cyclist Christopher Long of the activist group Critical Mass deliberately steered into him in an attempt to injure the new recruit during a protest in Times Square in July 2008.
The officer said that he was protecting himself after having ordered Long to stop owing to the fact that he had taken his hands off the handlebars of the bike.
Fortunately for Long, a bystander captured the incident on video and uploaded it to youtube, where it has received over two million views.
In reality the video shows Pogan pick out Long from a distance and move in to brutally shove him off his bike and onto the concrete sidewalk.
Immediately following the discovery of the video, Pogan was placed on desk duty. Now the officer has been forced to resign in disgrace and has been convicted of lying, falsifying business records and submitting a false report on the incident.
Pogan is looking at up to four years in prison, however he is more likely to escape with a probation sentence instead.
Mr Long, who was not seriously injured in the incident, was acquitted of assault charges and awarded a $65,000 payout from the NYPD following a lawsuit.
Critical Mass protests involve cyclists riding through the streets in opposition to urban reliance on vehicles.
This case is not an isolated incident. Indeed, pretty much exactly the same thing happened just weeks ago in LA when an officer was caught on camera kicking a cyclist to the ground during a protest against oil giant BP.
“Whoa, what the f*** was that for?” the unidentified cameraman can be heard saying. Moments later, the video shows two officers converge on the cameraman and take him down to the ground.
“Get up,” one officer can be heard saying, as another says “Stay down.”
These incidents highlight how an increasing percentage of police are acclimatized to treat free thinking Americans as filthy scum that need to be taken down.
They also highlight how in many cases the only line of defence the victims have is video cameras. The cops know this, that is why they turn on the cameraman at the LA protest, and why war has effectively been declared by the so called authorities on filming and photography in our cities.
Original article here
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