Cop Who Shoved Cyclist Fired by NYPD, Faces 4 Year Sentence
The police officer who was infamously caught on camera tackling a bicyclist in New York City was fired on February 10th, seven months after the original incident.
As we reported here on Planetsave, former officer Patrick Pogan, 23, has been arraigned under charges of falsifying records. We’ve now learned that he has plead not guilty to the charges in Manhattan court and could face up to 4 years in prison if convicted.
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The Manhattan District Attorney said that the YouTube video footage along with witness accounts clearly contradicted Pogan’s claim that the cyclist was “obstructing government administration” and resisting arrest. The cyclist had charges dropped soon after the video became available.
Pogan was a rookie officer and he has still not given a legitimate explanation as to why he tackled the cyclist. We have learned that he was an offensive lineman on his high school football team — perhaps that could explain a bit?
The power of YouTube footage also came in handy recently with the case of a teenage boy who decided to upload footage of himself torturing a cat. Once the video spread, people from various message boards and social media websites traced the boy’s name and location, eventually resulting in his arrest. He and his brother, who filmed the abuse, have been charged with two counts of animal cruelty.
If you’re not one of the 2 million people who have seen the footage of the cyclist tackle, check it out below.
UPDATE: The New York Times is reporting that Pogan’s lawyer claims that Pogan “resigned” from the force and was not fired, contrary to the statement released by the police department. Also, I’ve made a small correction — it has only been about 7 months since the incident, not over 18 months. Silly me, I’ll have to use a calculator next time I try such a tricky math problem late at night.
Via: Daily News Photo Credit: Doug Letterman on Flickr under Creative Commons license.
@ Tim - 4 years is for falsifying a police report, not the actual act of tackling the guy.
@ Ryan - Clearly not all high school football players go around tackling people. I just meant he must have acquired the tackling skillz in high school.
I’m sure he’ll have it pretty easy behind bars. It’s not like inmates have anything against cops, especially crooked lying well-publicized ones.
Yet another example of the problem with police in america today. Send this “cop” to jail. Power hungry cops throwing there weight around. No pun intended.
I would imagine this is not an isolated incident for this “cop”
Pogan should also face federal criminal charges for “Assault Under the Cover of Authority.”
Watch your back, Pogan. There are hundreds of people out there that WILL crack your worthless skull open given the right opportunity (that does not include me. I will enjoy hearing about it, however).
Pffft. That’s nothing. I used to be a homeless rodeo clown but now I am a world class magician !
It’s a shame these things take so long as it effects the confidence of the people, but I’m glad justice is being served.
I meant to say “Assault Under the Color of Authority.”
(see above posting)
“brian said on February 20th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
I hate these biker pricks that don’t obey traffic laws and try to disrupt everyone’s day that are obeying laws, and just trying to get from one place to another. I ride a bike for fun, but a “shove” is nothing less than they deserved”
brian you are just as bad as the punk cop who pulled this stunt, you coward.
the advancement of video technology is a two edged sword. in cases like this, i think (hope) it will eventually lead to people behaving better, knowing that somebody somewhere in the vicinity may be capturing their deeds on camera.
however, the dark side will be also when ultimately anybody can record what anybody else is doing (big brother is the extreme of this) and those deeds which are done out of passion, out of goodness or out of conviction will not go unnoticed.
gives new meaning to rockwell’s “i always feel like somebody’s watching me”