No surprise here. The question is what will happen to the officer.
Tag: police brutality
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L.A. Police Shift Discipline Away From Automatic Punishments
I had no idea that any department could be so stupid to have a system of “automatic punishment.”
“In a series of changes this year, direct supervisors are being encouraged to forgo suspensions of officers who they believe will change their behavior – or just made a one-time mistake – and instead opt for written warnings.”
“Police officials believe the shift could turn around a department, forcing officers to think about their actions instead of automatically being suspended and often getting paid for those days by a union insurance policy.”
You think?
The whole story is here.
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Officer assaults bicyclist (3): stupidy breaks out in groups
Leave it to Bike Snob NYC to give a beyond-the-obvious take on the take-down. Here is an edited version:
By this point most people have seen the footage of critical mass cyclist Christopher Long getting tackled by NYPD officer Patrick Pogan. This is a classic example of the eternal conflict between the younger, more progressive generation and the older, more conservative one—except of course that the rider was 29 and the officer was 22.
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Similarly, the standard of what constitutes heroic behavior is also lower in 2008. The bike-tackler, Patrick Pogan, is a third-generation police officer. I wanted to know more about the Pogan family, so I strapped on my “investigative journalist” helmet and Googled vigorously for almost two full minutes. I finally uncovered this New York Times article from 1991…. I will go ahead and assume that the Pogan mentioned herein is the bike-tackler’s father:
So it would seem that tackling someone riding his bike is in 2008 what rescuing someone from a wrecked subway train with the jaws of life was in 1991, because Pogan Sr. not only stands by his son (as you’d expect him to) but is also proud of him for what he did:“He’s my son. I’m proud of him. He’s third-generation that’s been serving the city,” said Pogan Sr., who was at home in Massapequa Park, LI, today and said he had not seen the video. “These people are taking over the streets and impeding the flow of traffic. Then you gotta do what you gotta do,” said Pogan, 51.
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Yet try as I might, it’s hard for me to feel outrage…. One of the most important truths I’ve learned is that where there are crowds there is stupidity. When large numbers of people get together, stupid things happen, and you’re almost always better off simply getting as far away from the crowd as possible.
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One of the things that make cycling so great is that it enables you to avoid crowds and pointless delays. Few things are more satisfying than effortlessly weaving your way through a traffic jam. So while I’ll begrudge nobody his or her Critical Mass, personally I don’t understand the appeal of forming a crowd and creating a pointless delay. And it is a delay, whether you’re in a car or on a bike.I once accidentally got caught in a Critical Mass ride while out riding. I felt like a dolphin ensnared in a tuna net. One second I was sailing along, and the next I was trapped among a bunch of people with rickety bikes rolling on wobbly, rusty brown steel rims on the verge of collapse. It was like watching a Beatles “Yellow Submarine”-esque cartoon LSD sequence where all the bicycles were rolling on pretzels.
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People do need to see other people out there on bikes. They need to become accustomed to them so they learn to respect them, and they need to see how practical and effective they can be so they consider riding them themselves. Many cyclists illustrate this day after day…. Effectively, you’re a Critical Mass of one. Meanwhile, a mob of people on crappy bikes blocking traffic one day a month isn’t a “mass” at all. At best it’s a party. At worst it’s effectively just one big stupid person.Stupidity breaks out in groups, and when people gather expect stupid things to happen. You may or may not encounter a stupid person or stupid thing individually as you go about your day, but you’ll definitely encounter one in a crowd, and Christopher Long encountered one in the form of Patrick Pogan. On the other hand, intelligence travels alone, but it travels swiftly, and consequently it’s not only more effective, but it also generates much better word-of-mouth.
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So wrong?
There’s another video of excessive NYPD use of force.
This has nothing to do about bicyclists. But it is the NYPD. And brutality. And it probably won’t turn out well for the officer.
At least neither of the cases directly involve race. The bike case was white on white. This is black on black (and yes, there would be a different reaction from the press and public if a white officer had been beating the black guy).
The academy does not teach the baton to be used as a compliance tool like this. That’s how they’re going to get the officer. In cases like this, I was taught to mace the guy, but never did (and is mace really better than hitting him?). It’s another point in favor of my lost cause: the straight baton. You can use it for leverage to force an arm.
So here, even though I think the cop did the wrong thing, I can’t help but stick up for him a little bit. Not in beating the guy. But youtry and force a man’s hands behind his back. It’s not as easy as you think it is! Why doesn’t he just do what the officers say?
The right thing to do is wait for backup. Two officers may not be able to get the arms behind the back. But four officers can!
Assuming there was a good reason to arrest this guy (and naturally I do… but that the cop in me. I wasn’t there. And the Postraises the question), well, you gotta put your hands behind your back. You’re under arrest. You don’t have a choice.
And you know what really doesn’t help matters? The girl in background yelling and egging everybody on. As an officer trying to control a situation, the last thing you want is to worry about is that the woman yelling “fight” is going to join the fray. It makes want to end things faster.
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Officer assaults bicyclist (2): Let Them Ride
Ray Kelley, the commissioner, just came on the radio and said he “couldn’t fathom” why the officer, Pogan, did that.
That means the officer is officially being fed to the dogs… hung out to dry… you might even say thrown under a bus.
And since the officer is still on probation… well, it’s time to dust off the resume.
You can read the lying officer’s report at the smoking gun.
And my previous post here.
One comment asked a good question: what should police do?
Three simple words: Let them ride!
As much as it pains a few particular people in the NYPD, you can’t control hundreds of people on bikes. Especially if they’re willing to get arrested. Police have to work with Critical Mass, just like police do in many other cities. Provide an escort. Join the fun.
That means that once a month, yes, bikes go unrestricted through the streets. Yes, it might slow cars down. But so do double parkers and the 4th of July Parade.
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Officer assaults bicyclist
Luckily somebody was filming. Uh, officers, you should always police like people are filming. Especially when you know they are.
As a former cop and current bicyclist, I don’t get is why the NYPD is so hellbent against Critical Mass. Other cities manage just fine. Police escort. A little traffic disruption. A lot of bicyclists have a good time. Nobody gets hurt. Nothing so wrong in that.
Here’s the article in the New York Times.
As a police officer, I’m willing to cut police a lotof slack for aggressive behavior in aggressive or chaotic situations. I’m also willing to cut police officers a fair amount of slack for honest mistakes. I also don’t think a few seconds of video clip taken out of context should ruin an officer’s career.
But the context here isclear. The officer, Pogan, is guilty of unprovoked aggravated assault. And as a New York City taxpayer, I don’t want to pay for lawsuits from bad policing. I don’t like it one bit.
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Liberty City Police Face Allegations Of Incompetence, Brutality
I’ve visited Liberty City. And the problems are even worse than you think.
Since the surge in crime, which began on April 28 at midnight, more than 830,000 civilians have been murdered—nearly one-tenth of Liberty City’s total population. In addition, 35,000 vehicles have been reported stolen, many of which were then driven illegally over sidewalks and pedestrian walkways before plunging into the nearby Humboldt River. -
4 Philadelphia Cops Fired for Beating
The ax has started to fall in response to the Philly police beatings. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that four officers have been fired, others have been demoted and/or disciplined.
Maybe this beating was an aberration, but given the mass involvement, it’s hard to imagine that this wasn’t part of the informal Philly police culture. Two of the officers were just months out of the police academy. That’s not a good sign. Nor does it reflect well on their academy. I guess Philly is still hiring old-school police.
As I wrote before, there’s no excuse for police acting like they did. They should be fired. And some criminally charged. And yet, part of the cop in me also can’t help but feel sorry for the officers.
I wish the Philly brass had done more to confront and change a culture of police brutality before this happened, rather than ruin the lives of a half a dozen men simply because this time their bad deeds were caught on tape. Do you really think that Commissioner Ramsey was shocked, shocked!?
In 1958, Everett Hughes coined the concept of “reality shock.” The bigger the gap between what you’re supposed to do and what you have to do, the more likely you are to dismiss all of what you’re supposed to do. Academy trainees are sequestered away for the realities of policing in an idealistic bubble of what some people think police shouldbe. The goal of the police academy should be to minimize “reality shock” by closing the distance between police training and police reality.
There’s a great Ali G Show episode that shows this. He spends a day at, of all places, the Philadelphia Police Academy. I show it in my classes because it illustrates some of the absurdity of police training. I also show it because it’s funny. At one point Ali G gets reprimanded for swearing at a man with a [fake] gun. You know what, when lives are at stake, an officer really shouldn’t be thinking about his mouth. There’s nothing wrong with swearing at a man with a gun.
In the Netherlands, police training last two years. That’s probably too long. But what I like about the Dutch system is that police officers spend those two years alternating between school and the street. They spend half the time in each, in three-month intervals. That way school relates to the street and on the street you can apply what you learn in school.
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Philadelphia PD shame
Philadelphia cops pulled three men out of a car and beat the crap out of them. For about 30 seconds. I find it inexcusable. I’m sure these guys who were beat are not good people. And no, I don’t know the whole story. But I can’t imagine anyscenario where it’s these beatings are justified.
What were they thinking? They were pumped on adrenaline. There was a shooting. A cop had been killed two days earlier. They surely felt these guys “deserved” a thumping. But that doesn’t make it right. Just because you want to beat somebody–just because perhaps they even deserve a good beating–doesn’t make you should. Some of these cops might have been very good police. And now their careers are over.
Even worse, the guys who were beat will get big bucks from the city, thanks to the stupid actions of a dozen cops.
