Assuming he’s not favorably comparing the assault of Christopher Long by NYPD Officer Patrick Pogan to a 1987 Sylvester Stallone film about arm wrestling, it’s good to hear that Mayor Bloomberg is appropriately disturbed by the incident.
From the New York Times:
The New York City Police Department, with its 35,000 officers, has in recent years been on the front lines of the citywide decline in serious crime. It has protected visiting dignitaries like Pope Benedict XVI at events that drew thousands of people, and it has posted officers in foreign capitals to gather information on terrorism and trends that could threaten New York.
But the Police Department continues to be flummoxed by bicyclists riding together once a month.
Critical Mass in NYC
The rides are known as Critical Mass. The police have sent helicopters to track the riders as they roll through Manhattan on the last Friday evening of every month. They have stationed mobile command centers — the kind of trailer-size outposts set up after a major emergency like the collapse of a crane or a steam pipe explosion — near where the cyclists usually gather in Union Square.
The police say that the cyclists break the law — running red lights and blocking side streets to allow riders to pass, while shouting disparaging comments at officers. Over the past four years, the cyclists say, the police have arrested about 600 riders and issued more than 1,000 summonses during the rides.
A cyclist arrested in the latest rally was accused of riding straight into an officer in Times Square. But when a video surfaced last week showing the officer going out of his way to shove the rider off his bike, it seemed to surprise the city’s top officials.
“From what you could see on the video, it looked to me to be totally over the top,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly told a television reporter, “I can’t explain why it happened. I have no understanding as to why that would happen.”
One Comment
Shouldn’t you have said “_classic_ 1987 Sylvester Stallone film about arm wrestling?”