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Thu 31 Jul, 10:18 am UTC

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New York policeman filmed attacking cyclist

By Mark Appleton

A New York Critical Mass cyclist was charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest on last Friday evening before being held in custody for 26 hours. 

The problem for the police officer, Patrick Pogan, who made the arrest and on whose evidence cyclist Christopher Long was charged, is that someone had videoed the incident in question.

Far from corroborating Pogan’s statement which alleged that Long had been “weaving” through traffic and “forcing multiple vehicles to stop abruptly or change their direction in order to avoid hitting” the rider, the video actually shows the rider moving in normal fashion down a street where there are no cars in his immediate vicinity. The footage shows Pogan first walking towards Long, forcing him to swerve, then knocking the cyclist to the ground with a move that looks like it came straight off an American football field.

Pogan had filed a criminal complaint against Long claiming the latter had deliberately attacked him with his bicycle. After the video was posted on You Tube, New York's Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said “I can’t explain why it happened, I have no understanding as to why that would happen.”

The 22 year old Pogan has now been stripped of his badge and gun and placed on desk duties while a police departmental investigation is carried out.

User Comments

There are 10 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 10 of 10 comments

  • Wow! I'm shocked.

    I hope he gets what's coming to him. You wouldn't thinking someone who is entrusted with looking after the public would do something like that.

    Still shocked! RC

  • Interesting that another cop is watching the whole thing.

    I wonder, if he supported his colleagues arrest and charging the cyclist, why he isn't stripped of his badge as well.

  • Thats baaaad ! Hope he loses his job for it.

    Not sure about the other cop - when you get just the one chance to see something - you cant really take it all in.

  • We can all do this....log on to both the Office of the Mayor of New York and the Office of the Police Commissioner and write a complaint. They're duty bound to answer your complaint so let's get a worldwide ball rolling!

    Velohead18

    Glasgow, Scotland

  • I'm a cop sack him , and Mr long should sue his ass for ijuries, wrongful arrest etc etc what a dickhead

  • That really is very cruel and out of hand. Why ruin your career in such a stupid way - there were probably hundreds of people around with cameras for one. Again, why did the other cop not file a complaint, I hope that is investigated also.

  • what happened to his bike? Did he get it back? Looks like another cyclist sneaking off with it to me!

  • Jesus, he could actually have killed the guy (no helmet). If their internal police investigations are anything like ours I doubt anything will ever come of this...

  • definitly see the police man is taking longer strides than the one behind, even with time to look and stop long enough to let the cyclist by. if the cyclist was doing something really dangerous, he could hav just waved him down to speak to him instead of shoving the guy of the bike. any updates on the police investigation?

  • Clearly this is a case of serious assault by the policeman on the cyclist, and he should face criminal charges.

  • 1

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