burglnar

I dunno if it's the lack of sleep or what but you just made me weep on my keyboard. Bravo.

burglnar

Oh and here's my favorite quote from the cop forum:

"Seeing this video reminds me of one of the reasons I did my 20 and got out. Thank God I was never caught on a video cam or cell phone. If I had been caught on video for every attitude adjustment I gave, I would be serving 3 consecutive life sentances by now."

Not all cops are bad, that's for sure, but some of these guys are literally taking out all their messed up, mis-placed child-hood aggression on anyone they see as "libs" or "****". It's sickening to think that they hold any amount of power over anyone.. Or even believe they do.

deathhare

Not all cops are bad just like not all regular non-cop people are bad.
The problem is that ANY jackass can become a cop. In most places it takes no special skills, education, intelligence or ability to become one. The job often attracts the ****ed up type of person that wants power, wants to wield power anyway they can and wants to walk around with a gun.

Its no surprise that statistically more wife beaters are cops than any other profession.

brooklyn_bike

uh, if you're a cop you first verbally command the cyclist to stop (which he didn't do) and maybe put your hand up as a visual to stop (just like when cops direct traffic). you could also bear hug the guy instead of speed walking into him and body checking him off his bike into the curb. you also don't falsify the arrest report with BS as this cop did unless you've obviously done something way wrong. the cop would have mentioned in his arrest report that the cyclist was suspected of a crime ahead of time - and that was the reason the cop brought him down that forcefully. but that wasn't the reason otherwise the cop would have mentioned this as it helps his cause. and guess what? if that video happened to not be taken - its the cops word against the cyclist in court. that means automatic ruling against the cyclist for an arrest report full of lies. its amazing you think that take down was reasonable even if you thought "the cyclist would flee"

tFUnK

i'm not arguing on behalf of the cop, and for the most part i agree with that you have stated, especially that part about had the video not been taken. but on the other hand, you have an officer trying to do his job, and let's assume for a second and give him the benefit of the doubt that there was a prior incident that had this cyclist targeted. it actually sort of looked like he was trying to hold the cyclist up towards the end, but this isn't clear. i'm just sayin', if i wanted to stop a cyclist who was going a moderate speed, i wouldn't exactly know how to do it. bearhugging would work but most likely both of you would go down. another thing to consider is that non-cyclists probably do not understand and appreciate the dangerous consequences of this sort of action (especially on a fixed gear).

bigbris1

After some lady got killed after being struck by a cyclist in Midtown back in my messenger days the cops were cracking down & I got stopped. He yelled, "Stop!" then ran up behind me, grabbed my bag & held me. When he asked why didn't I stop I replied that I was stopping. Of course, he didn't understand what it takes to bring a FG to a halt. He was cool otherwise tho, except the ticket he wrote me. In hindsight, I'm happy that I didn't get "body checked" while strapped in.

I live next door to a precinct & while many of the cops I've encountered there are real jerks, just as many are respectful & courteous.

jpatkinson

This statement reinforces my concern about the safety of riding fixed: what does it take to bring a fixed gear to a halt? Has anyone ever compared stopping distances for a fixie vs a freewheel bike with brakes? BTW: this cop sure looked out of line to me. Anyone who 'sees' otherwise has pretty thick filters over their eyes.

SingleSpeeDemon

Please don't derail this thread.

jpatkinson

Seems pretty relevant to me. We are generally of the impression that this cop's actions were out of line. But, if he is only 22yo and from NYC, seems he should be pretty aware of current trends, and should know what a fixie is [assuming the bike involved is a fixie], and how they are ridden and how they are stopped. Maybe that played a part in his choice of action. Maybe it didn't. Last time I checked, the title of this thread is Cop versus Bike, not Cop versus Cyclist ... so discussing the bike isn't derailing anything.

smp22

Actually it is.
The focus in this thread should be on the illegal action performed by a police officer. The fact that he lied and the fact that the violence was completely uncalled for.
This is what they used to call "fascism". But nobody gives a damn anymore.
They care more about whether it was a fixed gear or not, it does not matter.

And further, the fact that police officers show political bias when dealing with "perps" should concern you all very, very much.

SingleSpeeDemon

I think you're giving the cop a little too much credit. Besides, whether the cyclist he assaulted was riding a fixed gear or with or without brakes is irrelevant just as his knowledge of ignorance of that fact.

I for one just didn't want to see this turn into a brakes vs. brakeless thread and if I don't stop typing, it just damn-well may be headed that way.

cavit8

It appears quite evident that I viewed a different video than some others here. I have no problem with the fuzz in general, they've been known to cork for us at CM here in Toronto. In May they were out in force and corked almost every intersection. I recognize, like any profession, it has it's bad apples or puffed-up insecure pricks.

This was critical mass. This did not represent a moderate speed cyclist. The officer provided *no* indication to halt (unless he said "stop" which wasn't caught on the video). He approached the cyclist from the front and struck him from the side. The cyclist tried to avoid him until he was forced against the curb. At that speed it would have been simple to block the cyclist safely. This cyclist appeared to have been singled out from a crowd of other cyclists. There was no traffic in evidence. The police officer was on foot so I suspect that this point was the first contact with this cyclist. His arrest report is completely at odds with the events on the video.

I've no idea why this guy short-circuited and endangered this cyclist by knocking him to the pavement. But appearances are that his action was disproportionate to the situation and unarmed security or something is a more appropriate career from a public safety standpoint.

brooklyn_bike

you're pretty deluded if you think the cop tried to hold him up at the end. even the mayor of NYC said this was "over the top" and "excessive". its pretty obvious you're trying to give the cop the benefit of a doubt if you can't see the intentional malevolence in his actions and the lies he wrote into his arrest report (cop said he was knocked down after the cyclist swerved into him - total lies). and you can waste time with assumptions and what ifs. but the reality is: the cyclist WASN'T targeted from a prior incident. it was just a cop knocking an innocent guy down and then falsifying his arrest record to make it sound like the cyclist was the aggressor. you need to get a clue and give some support where its needed. how more obvious does the evidence need to be for you to see brutality and cops breaking the law? geez

elTwitcho

What would have been even worse is what if the cyclist had already ridden PAST the officer? Then I guess the only way he could have stopped the cyclist would have been to shoot him...

jpatkinson

Good point: I don't want to suggest one is superior to the other at ALL. I was simply interested in the relevance of this [someone else brought up the idea, not me]. I AM reading a thread in the singlespeed and fixed gear sub-forum, so I figured this post must have something to do with the kind of bike being ridden. Obviously, my mistake for assuming the sub-thread title is in any way related to the OP topic.

I will let you guys return to your regularly-scheduled agreement about the insanity of the cop's behavior [in which I share completely]. -JP

tweekfreekdX

it is jerks like that that give cops the names many of us refer to them as i know not all cops are like that but this is unacceptable

jobe149

burglnar

^Aahahahahahaahaaaaaaa!!! LOLZ COPZ!! What a tool that d*uche is. Look at him. I wonder what the unfortunate girl he date-***** on prom night thought about this story..