Patrick Pogan, the former NYPD officer who was caught on tape in 2008 violently shoving a cyclist off his bike, seemingly without provocation, faced up to four years in prison for a felony conviction of filing a false criminal complaint against cyclist Christopher Long. But yesterday Justice Maxwell Wiley (a Pataki appointee) sent a clear message to all those following the high-profile case: Lying cops suffer no consequences. And the "sentence," a "conditional discharge" which set no conditions, was even more lenient than Pogan's lawyer, Stuart London, had recommended. more ›

Christopher Long, the bicyclist shoved by a police officer during a 2008 Critical Mass ride, was at last night's Critical Mass ride. This comes just a day after the verdict that found former cop Patrick Pogan guilty of falsifying records but not of an assault on Long. Long said, "I don't think Pogan ever intended to assault me so I am not disappointed at all with the verdict. I think it suits the events to my liking," adding, "I do hope that we can all just chill out." more ›

Tonight, as fate would have it, is the monthly Critical Mass bike ride, which kicks off in Union Square between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Coming as it does on the heels of yesterday's divisive verdict in the big cop bike bodyslam trial, tonight's event should be... interesting. And to spice things up even more, pooping pothead Christopher Long has will be riding tonight! Long will make a brief statement at Union Square North before the ride starts. Then it's off to attack more poor innocent cops with his bicycle! A spokesperson for Time's Up says, "We are hoping that all the attention surrounding the harassment of the ride will refrain the NYPD brass assigned to tonight’s ride from making any outrageous or dangerous decisions typically witnessed on other rides." For a recent example, watch below: more ›

There's a wide range of reactions to yesterday's mixed verdict in the trial of former cop Patrick Pogan, who was convicted of filing a false criminal complaint (a felony), but acquitted of assaulting cyclist Christopher Long (video) in Times Square during a 2008 Critical Mass ride. "I think the charge should have been attempted murder," shouted gadfly Christopher X. Broduer outside the courthouse yesterday. Patrick Lynch of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association predicted, "This will have a chilling effect on every new, young officer... when they realize that mistakes now become crimes," Here's video of Broduer interrupting Lynch's press conference like Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now: more ›

Jury deliberations began Tuesday in the case of obviously guilty alleged cyclist assaulter and police report liar Patrick Pogan, whom the whole world saw violently shove a bike rider to the curb without provocation during a 2008 Critical Mass ride. Today is Thursday. What could possibly be taking so long? more ›

Attorneys made closing arguments yesterday in the trial of former NYPD officer Patrick Pogan, who faces up to four years in prison if the jury decides that he falsified police documents after the violent arrest of a cyclist during a 2008 Critical Mass ride through Times Square. He also faces up to three months in jail if found guilty of attempted assault. Yesterday, lawyers on both sides took their final shots. more ›

In a stunning reversal, former cop Patrick Pogan—whom countless people saw in a YouTube video slamming a cyclist off his bike during a 2008 Critical Mass ride—has acknowledged what everyone with eyes and an Internet connection already knows: that Christopher Long did not ride his bicycle "directly into [Pogan's] body, causing [Pogan] to fall to the ground," as written in the police report. more ›

Former cop Patrick Pogan—who was caught on video slamming a cyclist off his bike during a 2008 Critical Mass ride—took the stand today to defend himself against charges of misdemeanor assault and falsifying a police report. At times, the testimony defied reality—at least, reality as it appears on the videotape, which depicts Pogan shoving cyclist Christopher Long to the pavement in a seemingly unprovoked attack. But Pogan insists he was just doing what he had to do to defend himself from Long: more ›

Patrick Pogan, the former cop who was caught on tape slamming a cyclist off his bike during a 2008 Critical Mass ride, had been on the job only 11 days before the infamous incident. For that reason, he was part of a group of rookies instructed to simply observe the more experienced officers in Times Square on that fateful night, according to testimony from his superior, Sergeant Eric Perez. "I told them to let the detail enforce the laws," Perez said on the witness stand yesterday. "We wanted them there as backup, not to actually engage and stop." more ›

Yesterday we shared a new video showing more of the arrest of cyclist Christopher Long during a 2008 Critical Mass bike ride through Times Square. Arresting Officer Patrick Pogan faces a misdemeanor assault charge for knocking Long off his bike, seemingly without provocation, plus a felony charge of filing a false report, which carries a maximum sentence of four years in jail. But with the second video further undermining Pogan's claim that Long was trying to hit him with his bike, defense lawyers desperately tried to win the jury over with a stoner defense: If Long smoked grass, you must give Pogan a pass. more ›

The lawyer defending a rookie ex-cop accused of assaulting a cyclist and falsifying a police report told jurors yesterday that the infamous videotape of the incident "doesn't give you a 360 degree view of what occurred, it just shows you a small snippet. He wasn't injured at all, he got back up, never went to the hospital, refused medical attention, attempted to get away. Often police work does not look pretty but he was just enforcing the law." But later, prosecutors showed the jury a second, never-before-seen video. Taken by a man riding behind Christoper Long, it gives a fuller view of what happened immediately before and after Officer Patrick Pogan violently knocked Long to the curb: more ›

It was almost a year ago that a Times Square tourist happened to videotape a police officer's seemingly unprovoked assault on a cyclist during a Critical Mass group bike ride. The video, which depicts rookie cop Patrick Pogan slamming 30-year-old cyclist Christopher Long off his bike, sparked widespread outrage and ended up costing Pogan his job (getting caught filing a false police report didn't help his case, either). Long is now living in rural Wisconsin and working on a farm, but according to his lawyer, "There is psychological trauma, which explains why he is not living in New York City right now. It is a terrible experience for him to go through." So naturally he's suing the city, for $1.5 million, to help ease the pain. more ›

The NYPD officer caught on tape bodyslamming a cyclist to the curb during a group Critical Mass ride through Times Square last July has been fired. Though charges of assault, harassment and filing a bogus police report are still pending against rookie cop Patrick Pogan, a spokesman for the NYPD confirmed that he was dismissed ten days ago and that the termination was directly related to the Critical Mass incident. But Stuart London, a lawyer for Pogan, tells the Times the NYPD didn't fire his client—he quit in order to "concentrate his efforts on fighting the criminal charges that are against him, so that when he is ultimately acquitted he can reapply to the Police Department." Referring to the NYPD's claim that Pogan was canned, London says, "They make errors all the time." Indeed! A spokesperson for advocacy group Times Up had this to say: "The NYPD is taking a heavy hand on dealing with this police officer, but we hope that Mayor Bloomberg will direct the higher-ups at the NYPD to discontinue their pattern of dangerous tactics and selective enforcement against cyclists." more ›

As expected, NYPD officer Patrick Pogan, the rookie cop caught on video slamming a cyclist to the curb in a seemingly unprovoked assault during a July Critical Mass ride, turned himself in this morning. The grand jury indictment was then unsealed at State Supreme Court in Manhattan, and, according to NY1, Pogan was arraigned on a misdemeanor assault charge and a felony charge of filing a false report. (After arresting cyclist Christopher Long that night, Pogan accused Long of attempting assault, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct, contending that Long rode his bike straight into him, knocking them both down. Those charges against Long were later dropped.) more ›

more ›

Surprising no one, the cyclist who was captured on videotape being violently slammed off his bike by a rookie cop during a July Critical Mass ride plans to sue the city. In his first interview, Christopher Long also tells Chelsea Now that after Officer Patrick Pogan knocked him to the curb, he stood over Long and asked, "Do you wanna try that again?" Long also says he thinks Pogan "is going to be a scapegoat in this situation because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time...I think that the department really helped him do what he did, because he felt safe to act that way. He felt entitled to act that way. That’s the department, culturally. The department set him up for failure. He committed a crime, he assaulted me. He didn’t do that by himself." Long spent 27 hours in the Tombs after his arrest and was charged with attempted assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. The D.A. finally dropped the charges earlier this month; Pogan is still under investigation. more ›

On July 30th, NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly promised that New Yorkers would be able to send video and text straight to police in a “relatively short period of time.” And he actually delivered! The image software, which cost about $250,000, also serves the city's 311 non-emergency hot line, so don't hesitate to gather cell phone video of potholes and graffiti. According to WABC, New York is the first American city with the capability to accept images. 911 callers who have cell phone video or photos of a crime are instructed to inform the operator, and a detective with the NYPD's cool-sounding Real Time Crime Center will call back to receive the images. The evidence can also be submitted anonymously (details here), and by next year photos sent in by bystanders will be transmitted to patrol cars in the area. more ›

UPDATE: As expected, the Manhattan District Attorney has dropped all charges against Christopher Long, per this press release from Times Up. more ›

NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters yesterday that in a “relatively short period of time” people will be able to send “video and text straight to 911 to increase the flow of information.” Kelly didn’t go into details about how the technology would work, but he did say that “generally speaking, it’s helpful when people record an event taking place that helps us during an investigation.” more ›

Environmental group Times Up! is taking advantage of all the publicity generated by the video of a cop shoving a cyclist off his bike by reminding everyone that this is hardly the first such incident, nor the only one caught on video. The group points out that in 2007 one Richard Vazquez was taken down by a cop in Times Square during a Critical Mass ride, and in 2006 Adrienne Wheeler, a Critical Mass legal observer, was pulled off her bike by then-NYPD-Assistant-Chief Bruce Smolka, who's since retired. (The city settled with Wheeler for $37,000.) In a statement, Times Up! asserts that, “Unfortunately the July 25, 2008 incident is part of a pattern of targeting Critical Mass bike riders.” What's also unfortunate is that the production values on these old videos fail to live up to the new gold standard for police brutality porn. more ›

The cyclist who was videotaped being body slammed off his bike in an apparently unprovoked attack by an NYPD officer during Friday night’s Critical Mass ride has been identified as Christopher Long, a 29-year-old resident of Bloomfield, New Jersey who works at the Union Square Greenmarket. His boss tells the Daily News that Long is an Army veteran and "mild-mannered environmental activist." Craig Radhuber, 54, was riding behind Long Friday night and describes incident: “All of a sudden the cop picked this kid out and bodychecked him. I couldn't believe what was going on. [The officer] body-slammed this kid off the bicycle so hard that he went from the lane to the curb.” more ›