The Painter
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Bicyclist assaults NYPD officer
- Thread starter HarryKeogh
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The Painter
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Waaaa
The Painter
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I can't stream video here at work; I only saw it out of the corner of my eye this morning as I was clothing my nakedness. Is there anything in the video that would support either side's allegation that Long was/was not swerving in and out of traffic?
quixotecoyote
Howling to glory I go
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There does not appear to be any traffic present for him to swerve in and out of; just bicycles.
EeneyMinnieMoe
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How could I have missed that?
You're right- the cop barrels into the guy. Shoves him onto the street.
What an ass.
JoeEllison
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It is also interesting that the cop waits until there is almost zero bicycle traffic before picking out a lone rider to assault. One would have thought that a smarter cop looking to assault someone would have done it when a larger pack was nearby, because a collision could have actually appeared accidental.
As it stands, there are no mitigating circumstances for this attack at all.
geni
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He's moveing at about the same speed as the other bikes and there are no cars on the section of road in question so it seems unlikely.
geni
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Generaly there is a slightly different ruleset (admitedly part of that ruleset in the UK is likely to get you killed if you follow it).
Bikewer
Penultimate Amazing
The beginning of the video has a tag indicating that it's a Critical Mass event.
We have these locally, but with us easy-going Midwesterners, they tend to just turn into group rides that scarcely attract attention.
Worldwide, Critical Mass has been very much the activist organization. I was wrong about the date; although bicycle activism has been around since the 1800s, Critical Mass started in 1993 in San Francisco, since spreading to other areas with varying degrees of activity.
We have these locally, but with us easy-going Midwesterners, they tend to just turn into group rides that scarcely attract attention.
Worldwide, Critical Mass has been very much the activist organization. I was wrong about the date; although bicycle activism has been around since the 1800s, Critical Mass started in 1993 in San Francisco, since spreading to other areas with varying degrees of activity.
Yes, I suspect that this incident was actually a clumsy and heavy-handed
arrest by a tyro cop, not just a random assault.
Mojo
Mostly harmless
Delvo
Дэлво Δε&#
Actually, to me it looks like an accident. I can understand why someone would think it wasn't, but that's just due to ignorance of how biker/walker encounters often happen.
You and the other person you're about to collide with easily see each other approaching, try to adjust to avoid hitting each other based on which way you expect the other to adjust, then find out that (s)he actually adjusted the opposite way so no you've made a collision more likely, not less likely. And then if you adjust to that by reversing your course change, (s)he might also adjust by adjusting his/her course change at the same time, so you're still on a collision course even after trying to evade twice. It's like if you and someone else are walking toward each other east and west, then to try to go around you both veer north at first, then you realize that won't work so you both veer back south, then you realize that won't work so you both veer back north, and so on until one of you thinks a step ahead and chooses not to veer again or just plain stops walking right before the collision would have happened.
There are only two differences here. First, with a bike, there's no stopping and less time for either person to try to adjust in any other way. Second, the approach angle was closer to perpendicular than to being in a single line, so one person's escape attempts would have been a matter of speeding up and slowing down instead of veering right and left.
If I'm in that cop's position and I think the biker's going to veer left, I slow down so he passes in front of me. If I think he's going to veer right, I speed up so he passes behind me. Either way, if he veers the opposite direction, I'm unintentionally putting myself in his way while trying to get out of it, and he's unintentionally veering right toward me while trying to veer away. I might even suddenly change speed when I realize that whichever change I made first was the wrong one (suddenly slow down after speeding up, or suddenly speed up after slowing down), just like trying to swerve right and left. And when I realize it's too late to avoid a collision, all I can do then is brace for it to minimize my coming injuries. (For that matter, if someone in that cop's position see the biker's last evasive swerve and realizes it's causing the collision, and thinks it's deliberate because the biker surely must have seen the walker move to avoid him before the biker made his last swerve, then the walker might go into self-defense mode or just get pissed off, and try to hurt the biker for creating the collision.)
In real life, I was in almost exactly that same position a couple of months ago, walking while a biker was riding in my general direction from the left. I stopped completely because that was the only way to be sure the biker couldn't misjudge what my speed was at that moment or would be in the next. But that's not something most people think of; they just evade one way or another, and then find out the hard way whether or not it was the right one (and possibly blame the other person if it was the wrong one).
You and the other person you're about to collide with easily see each other approaching, try to adjust to avoid hitting each other based on which way you expect the other to adjust, then find out that (s)he actually adjusted the opposite way so no you've made a collision more likely, not less likely. And then if you adjust to that by reversing your course change, (s)he might also adjust by adjusting his/her course change at the same time, so you're still on a collision course even after trying to evade twice. It's like if you and someone else are walking toward each other east and west, then to try to go around you both veer north at first, then you realize that won't work so you both veer back south, then you realize that won't work so you both veer back north, and so on until one of you thinks a step ahead and chooses not to veer again or just plain stops walking right before the collision would have happened.
There are only two differences here. First, with a bike, there's no stopping and less time for either person to try to adjust in any other way. Second, the approach angle was closer to perpendicular than to being in a single line, so one person's escape attempts would have been a matter of speeding up and slowing down instead of veering right and left.
If I'm in that cop's position and I think the biker's going to veer left, I slow down so he passes in front of me. If I think he's going to veer right, I speed up so he passes behind me. Either way, if he veers the opposite direction, I'm unintentionally putting myself in his way while trying to get out of it, and he's unintentionally veering right toward me while trying to veer away. I might even suddenly change speed when I realize that whichever change I made first was the wrong one (suddenly slow down after speeding up, or suddenly speed up after slowing down), just like trying to swerve right and left. And when I realize it's too late to avoid a collision, all I can do then is brace for it to minimize my coming injuries. (For that matter, if someone in that cop's position see the biker's last evasive swerve and realizes it's causing the collision, and thinks it's deliberate because the biker surely must have seen the walker move to avoid him before the biker made his last swerve, then the walker might go into self-defense mode or just get pissed off, and try to hurt the biker for creating the collision.)
In real life, I was in almost exactly that same position a couple of months ago, walking while a biker was riding in my general direction from the left. I stopped completely because that was the only way to be sure the biker couldn't misjudge what my speed was at that moment or would be in the next. But that's not something most people think of; they just evade one way or another, and then find out the hard way whether or not it was the right one (and possibly blame the other person if it was the wrong one).
Modified
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Assault and resisting seem to be the standard charges for the victims of police brutality.
There were no bicyclers close behind, so he may have been singled out for that reason - because he could be taken down without causing a pile-up. If someone were taking bets though, I'd wager that he "mouthed off" to a cop up the road a ways, or gave the finger.
Modified
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It is possible, but from the various articles we have: "The complaint said Long, 29, deliberately steered his bicycle into the officer, causing both of them to fall to the ground." It appears he was trying to avoid the officer. That could be misinterpreted, but clearly the officer never hit the ground. The camera is off of him for only an instant, not enough time for him to fall and get back up. Since he lied about that, the whole thing smells fishy.
ponderingturtle
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And throwing an elbow into their gut is just an accident as well.
He charged into his path, he was not in the path to start with.
The Central Scrutinizer
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Well, the guy is a member of Critical Mass, so I'm willing to cut the cop some slack.