I’m uncomfortable with the idea of civil suits as a substitute for a functional criminal justice system. Primarily because, as pointed out, it doesn’t work. It’s a false resolution that leaves the victim possibly happy to have the money, but discredited in the public’s eye. The public blames the victim for the cost. Bad behavior continues. I don’t really mind if crying “tort reform” takes away this avenue of failure.

I would love to see city unions make a case to the public that, instead of putting billions of public dollars into the courtroom casino of unlimited compensation, why not spend that money intentionally and directly on infrastructure and personel (raises)? I’m game, but part of the deal would have to be that police and their union show greater enthusiasm for due process of our persons and be held accountable when they violate it. For transit and other unions the consequences of job invulnerability are less grave (no 26 hour imprisonments based on false reports!), but the attitudes often displayed by their members are far from acceptable. With greater accountability across the board, the criminal justice system would have a lot better chance of prosecuting itself when that is called for.

None of that is under any one person or organization’s control, but making public statements that are plainly contradicted by a video everyone has already seen on youtube is heading in exactly the wrong direction. We need build trust in each other and fix things instead of stubbornly clinging to systems that help a few of us while dragging all of us into the ground.

Are you guys kidding me, this is the reason the job is dead.

You complain the public has no respect for us, this is why. A fool move on his part makes all of us look bad.
Knowing that people look for us to do something stupid why would you do it in front of all those people.

He said the biker ran into him, none of us are that blind. I’m all for standing up for my brothers but not for fools who do things that make me look bad.

Sorry but i’m not making an excuss for this jerk.

http://theerant.yuku.com/topic/7789/t/Video-shows-NYPD-cop-assaulting-cyclist.html

there’s a lot of choice quotes like:

what’s the big deal he was keeping the bicyclists in check just letting them know we are still in charge it’s an old school tecnique hahahahaha

Now, I need to get Andrea on my tandem to show her the other side of the handlebar: how many pedestrians:
-don’t look while crossing against the red hand;
-look and see the cyclist, but step in front of the moving bike anyway.

Obey the Red Hand!

Just the nerve to tell so crazy a story as “a Critical Mass cyclist deliberately rammed me?”

Who here, on their worst day, would deliberately ram their bike into a cop? Totally unbelievable, right? Telling such a story shows that the guy is a screwball not fit for public service.

Put aside the fact that the story constitutes a lie on an official report–just the tremendous delusion and/or lack of ethics required to TELL such an implausible story shows that someone is not fit–mentally and/or ethically–to work for the government.

May have been true 40 years ago. Today they are a benefit to the retired and those who work for the unions themselves.

Remember, this is kind of cop you get for $25K in a city whose overall spending on police as a share of its residents’ income was 67% higher than the national average in FY 2006, per the Census Bureau.

Ah yes, there is that generational equity issue again. It’s everywhere.

The fact that organized labor is considered to be a benefit to the public and to workers cannot excuse such unethical behavior. You don’t get a pass just because you are a union chief. You must still be bound by the rules of civilized behavior, which means honesty and respect. The PBA representative is doing the rhetorical equivalent of giving the public the finger. Why should the public stand for it?

I think that this cop did wrong and the video evidence is compelling. Still though, I believe in due process and burden of proof for all workers. Even cops, priests and teachers. The employer has to prove their case not the worker prove his innocence. That galls a lot of people. How much cheaper the transit system would be if the employer could just declare guilt or innocence as in the non-union world.

Video evidence didn’t help Rodney King however but I believe it did provide him with a nice civil settlement. That could be the case here. I’m thinking nice civil settlement that will cost the NYPD. Giuliani paid out a lot over his years as Mayor and the citizens still rewarded him with re-election. Usually though the same people who hate union contracts due process and burden of proof provisions also usually cry for “tort reform” to take away the citizens rights to sue for redress.

When PBA’s Patrick Lynch runs for office, which he seems to be interested in doing, let everyone remember and quote his defense of this cop, for it is almost as full of demonstrable lies as the cop’s own report:

“Sources said Pogan spotted Long weaving through traffic and riding with just one hand on the handlebars. Pogan yelled at Long to stop and when the cyclist tried to veer around the cop, he leaped into action, Lynch said.

‘Instead of slowing down or stopping as any reasonable person would when an officer approached, this rider dropped his shoulder in an attempt to avoid arrest by plowing into the officer’s chest, which resulted in the officer pushing him away,’ he said.”

The Times quotes Ray Kelly on the senseless cop-on-cyclist violence:

“I can’t explain why it happened,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said on Tuesday. “I have no understanding as to why that would happen.”

Given what appears to be an anti-cyclist bias pervading the NYPD, Mr. Kelly’s shock seems just a wee bit disingenuous.

“Most accidents occur on choked Manhattan streets, where bicycles rule and bipeds scramble.”

“Bicycles rule?” I guess it’s ok to dream.