Paul Barnard

The subject cop didn't exercise the temperament, morality, judgment or restraint I expect of paid peace officers. If someone in my charge behaved similarly I'd take serious disciplinary action. If the accounts of the cyclists and witnesses are accurate, that cop is a bully with a badge, not a peace officer.

Ball Bearing

many of us who do not live in the USA look at what's happening and shake our heads in disbelief. The police have armored tanks and other military hardware and they routinely use SWAT squads to serve simple warrants.

How would the cyclist be able to slap the SUV if it was not really close? I suppose the police apologists will claim that the cyclist must have swerved into traffic and maliciously tried to damage the vehicle of an innocent, law-abiding citizen. Why would he do that?

The way the cop's car is parked across traffic shows that he was not too concerned about driving responsibly.

kickstart

I guess we're trying to catch up with Europe where cops routinely carry machine guns, spring loaded billy clubs, and use commandos to serve warrants.

FBinNY 

I also see police with all sorts of nonsense toys in the metro NYC burbs. I haven't decided yet if it's because they watch too much TV and believe that's the real world, of if it's the result of Federal financing assistance.

We don't have much by way of federal subsidies for normal local policing (which is as it should be). But since 9/11, or maybe even before, we a have all sorts of grants for special needs. That means there's tons of dough for the asking, but only if you buy a mobile command post, set up a bomb squad, equip a special anti-terrosim unit, or the like. Once they have these goodies they have to find a use, but the system bypasses the normal critical thinking, whereby dollars are tight and most local governments won't part with them easily.

bakes1

I am quite amused by all the obvious anti police people in this thread who are throwing the term 'witness' around.
I read the article and i did not see one mention of any official witnesses that gave official statements to the police.
However, i did see mention of other cyclists supposedly making witness statements on a cyclist blog.
There's no chance that could be biased lol.

LesterOfPuppets

There has been some discussion on chainlink.org on whether the woman mentioned in this passage will have her account recorded by police so that she will become an official Witness, with a capital "W".

randomgear

Umm, did the cops even bother to ask any bystanders what happened in a simple arrest by an upstanding member of the union.

I think not.

bakes1

Like I said.
No witnesses mentioned in the story who actually gave a statement to the police.
That equals zero witnesses so far in case anyone wants to stick to the facts.
A bike blog is chatting about the possibility of what again lol?
Rebel without a clue

Chris516

Regardless of the off-duty officer's temperament, morality, judgment, or restraint. Off-duty officers' don't carry a pair of handcuffs. Which makes me wonder if the 'said' officer. Was actually an officer in the first place.

Genuine officer, or not. I definitely agree that the officer was being a bully.

Owlex

lol! no such thing


And, taxpayers don't seem to be jumping at the bit to force police officers to wear bodycams, so now we have a nasty rogue cyclist's word versus the word of a "peace officer" in court.

I can flip a coin and get a more fair judgement than the cyclist will get in this scenario.

Paul Barnard

I can think of no reason that someone who witnessed the incident might approach giving an official statement with a bit of trepidation.

JonnyHK 

The cyclist will eventually catch up with these people and they'll either submit statements to the police (and thus become witnesses) or they'll appear for the defence at the trial. Either way the cop will have to face it.

Looigi

I guess we'll just have to add resisting arrest to the charges.

spdntrxi

that one was on porpoise

jeichelberg87

Who told you this bunch of malarkey?

jeichelberg87

I believe this incident is just one in a many type of poor interactions between police and the general public, having found their genesis in the time span of the 60's when the politicians found it somehow expedient to remove our police from WALKING BEATS and placing them behind the wheel of vehicles and a set of mirrored Ray Bans. No one knows police and therefore there is no respect. Where there is no respect, there is no decency. Where there is no decency, the crime rate will rise.

Take the police out of the vehicles and put them on a bicycle patrol or walking patrol. The crime rates will go down and hanging out at station 2 will decrease.

Dave Cutter

Nice to know that you are so confident in your own psychic powers as to KNOW that it is the cop, and NOT the reporter or the lawyer at fault. I once knew a young lady that was equally assured of her psychic powers.... but I never felt she was completely sane.

dksix

I thought you were "OUT OF THIS" ????

Dave Cutter

I am. But I will respond to personal attacks and insults (even from my stalker fan... you). Which is what this thread has become. You seem to even be afraid of others posts too... huh.

dksix

Just pointing out your word is meaningless, you say one thing but do another.

FBinNY 

I don't have or claim to have psychic powers. I respond to the facts ---- AS REPORTED ---- since those are the only ones we have. I know this is only one side of the story, and if you scroll back to my original post, you'll see that I acknowledged that.

But basing a post on the limited or possibly inaccurate information doesn't require the assumption of facts not presented, and as limited as it is, it's better than relying on imputed fiction to base a post on.

FACTS (even limited or unreliable ones) trump FICTION and wild guesses. Also, life isn't a digital zero sum game. Error isn't black and white, and saying that one party was wrong, doesn't imply he was totally wrong, nor does it imply that the other party wasn't also wrong to a degree.

That cuts two ways. IMO - the cyclist was a jerk, but being a jerk doesn't warrant an arrest, and the issue I posted to was the disproportionate reaction of the officer (based on the facts as reported. Nor does saying an officer was wrong in a particular instance imply anything generally about police officers, or even how this one may be on an everyday basis. YOU are the only one making broad brush statements in response to a number of relatively level head posts. Yes, there were some posts that seemed to reflect "cop hater" mentality, but I don't speak for or to those.

Cyclosaurus

For those familiar with Chicago, this story is one you just shrug your shoulders at and say, yeah that's Chicago cops. Illinois is corrupt top to bottom and Chicago especially so. Chicago cops have been used to operating with virtual impunity for decades. They had all-but-official policies of torturing suspects for much of this. Illinois had the strictest laws and enforcement against filming police in the nation until the IL Supreme Court struck them down, for the very reason of trying to evade accountability. I've had friends who worked in emergency rooms who witnessed police coming to fetch "one of their own" who was drunk driving and crashed to avoid punishment. I think one of the differences with other cities is that the culture goes deep into the police department, the prosecutors, the judges, everyone is in on it, because it's part of the overall corruption.

Anyone with any sense treats cops like a wild tiger. Powerful, dangerous if provoked, potentially very irrational. This article sums up well what it's like to cross Chicago cops: Our Three-Year Struggle to Get Chicago to Admit We Were Beaten by the Police | VICE | United States. And this is more like what day-to-day abuse from Chicago cops looks like: Chicago Police Found Guilty of Covering Up Bartender Beating - ABC News

Chris516

Malarkey you say. Have you ever seen a uniformed officer come to a department/precinct, in their uniform and police cruiser? That had not started their 'shift'? But was already in their police uniform when they got to the station? I certainly haven't. I have seen plenty of uniformed officers', allowed to take their police cruiser to their home. But none in their uniform off-shift. There is even one officer for a local city police department who takes his/her squad car to their home. I haven't followed them. Their apartment/condo is within feet of a 7Eleven and it is obvious the way I have seen them park on multiple occasions. That they are not there(repeatedly) for a domestic call or crime scene after crime scene.

kickstart

Yes, as a rule rather than an exception.

jon c. 

These days, the guy should probably just consider himself lucky the cop didn't shoot him.