As someone mentioned above, perhaps the cyclist did something earlier, and he evaded other cops, who then called out his description over the radio.

The fact that the cops use certain terms to justify bad actions doesn’t preclude their correct use, and we don’t have enough information to know which case this is.

(though I must admit the takedown technique seems pretty likely to cause injury)

Why wasn’t he charged with that alleged crime?”

I assume because that the event happened in reality, in which more than one person witnessed the same event as the camera did, for a longer duration and from different angles. Based on that, since he hasn’t been charged i’m going to assume for now that he didn’t actually do anything wrong.

Suicidal? Why no mention of the homicidal acts of cars? This is the part you gloss over in saying “drivers don’t make it any easier.” Cars are deadly weapons, bikes aren’t. It’s this state of play that inspires Critical Mass: assuming cars are just doing what they do and bikes are crazy and all over the place. The bias here should be apparent.

It’s not bicyclists’ fault that car drivers are inattentive and entitled, but then why lambaste bicyclists for the same behavior? It just reeks of hypocrisy.

Jupiter12:
Kudos to the NYPD for stripping the cop of his gun and badge. One bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch.

This guy is a third-generation officer and just three weeks out of academy. Somehow he emerged from all of that thinking something like this was OK. The circumstances suggest it’s a bigger problem than one bad apple.

His conduct does appear to be clearly excessive, however he may have merely used a poor course of action to enact an otherwise legitimate detention for a legitimate reason.

There’s simply not enough info in the video to say that this cop just decided to randomly single someone out and tackle them for shits and giggles.

Police misconduct is very real and happens often, but it is still the exception, not the rule.

Is your comment saying essentially “If you were attacked you must have been doing something wrong” intended to be ironic, or was it unintentional?

But it seems that Critical Mass has created such a negative view of cyclists that we aren’t all jumping up and down in anti-authoritarian rage at what the video shows.

NYPD have long been known for their very “wide stance.”

If a cop attacks you without warning, you’d better have a good reason to explain why he shouldn’t have, or people will smirk and turn away. Prove your innocence.

Here’s the thing about fascism and police states that people never want to face up to: almost all people LIKE police states. They WANT to see people that don’t conform beaten and jailed. This is a truth that needs to be understood, or the last seven years in the US are incomprehensible. People hate the troublemakers, even if the trouble is in the people’s attitudes towards them, and not the targets’ behavior. They want the pink monkeys beaten and removed. They want today to be just like yesterday, and they want everyone to be just like them. That, and people, deep down, like to see a good show. And, recall Pratchett: the people throwing the stones are so enthusiastic because they aren’t the one’s being stoned. If you’re the kicker, you by definition can’t be the kicked.

Guessing that there musta hadda oughta been some crime committed off camera in order to blame the victim – 0 IQ points. How many District Attorneys are in this comment thread?

To say that you have no patience with calls to make it safer for bikers to be on the road is adversarial and frankly really cruel. Just because you’ve encountered some cyclists that run red lights, you don’t give a crap if it’s unsafe for other cyclists to legally share the road?

In my case, I made a point of safely going around the mass of bikes, but that apparently wasn’t good enough for the first two that started on me.

Here in Chicago we have bike lanes on many streets, a very pro-cycling mayor and a very active and supportive cycling community.

All I’ve seen CM do around here is practice corking and generally announce themselves in the most confrontational way possible. I’ve seen screaming matches with drivers, seen a real lack of respect for pedestrians and a generally pretty rude attitude with the CM crowd.

I’d rather convey that riding your bike is a fun healthy and cheap way to get around town without alienating motorists. Events like like “Bike the Drive” (where the run of Lake Shore Drive is shut to motor traffic for several hours) and Midnight Rides do just that. I want people to join the fun, not get in a fight.

Are you frakking serious?

Have you ever seen CM in Seattle?

It wasn’t just me. It was the car beside me who also had the misfortune at being at the front of the line at the intersection when they “corked” it.

Countless people in Seattle have experienced it, from pedestrians to cars caught in a corking maneuver.

Yep, they ran the light after the car in front of me got through, and the mob just came in. Their aggression here is legendary, but, speaking of blame the victim, you go right ahead. You’re still completely off base here.

Read the Slog at Seattle’s strangers. People talking about being on city busses and being completely encircled by the hordes and they even flip off the bus drivers.

I love the internet. Everybody’s an expert.

Oh yes, two wrongs make a right. Yes, drivers these days are idiots who have seem to have forgotten how dangerous motor vehicles are. If I could, I would strip the licenses and imprison every idiot who is say… TEXTING while driving.

That said, the actions of these idiots doesn’t make the actions of the cyclists any more correct AND being on a bicycle traveling in traffic means you DO need to be careful. You can either watch for the idiots or be one.

If you choose to be an idiot, whether driving a car or riding a bike, you have no place on teh roads.

In fact, anecdotally I’d say close to 50% of my friends, usually the quieter ones, get some form of road rage while driving, usually just by acting out verbally and with hand gestures. If I see that from my sweet sweet innocent friends then what about anger management guys who get angry when being calmed? That get angry at women and babies, and small animals that hinder their mighty plans?

Something about having your melon head exposed and out in the world gives you a little more humility about the road rage. You don’t have this armchair gallantry outside. Maybe for cyclists it only comes out on a CM; I’ve never been.

Still I usually bicycle. I don’t have health insurance and I go to work everyday wondering if this is going to be the day I get hurt physically and financially. I try to move quickly until I am panting heavily those angry motorists clipping me from behind. I give room for the cars behind me that are eager to turn right on red even though I don’t have to, hoping there will be one fewer cycle haters on the road by acting courteous. For self-defense I also expect that at any given time someone is going to be an asshole that doesn’t realize how unfairly we would be matched in a pissing contest against each other. I also watch for any sign of carelessness from people sitting in their cars waiting to open the door, people diving across the road in their cars for parking places, making sudden u-turns towards me without turn signals, hugging the curves when turning a street or otherwise “not seeing” me in intersections in which the probably forgot to use turn signals, and for cyclists ahead of me that may be laid to waste by the same dangers and bring me down with them suddenly. Skateboarders that could lose their board, taxis that make sudden stops in front of you, people who charge out of an alley and wait only a couple of feet from traffic for a chance to enter traffic, buses pinching you in to the parked cars, huge potholes forcing me to swerve around putting myself further out into the street where cars are frantically trying to change lanes before, god forbid, they miss a turn and their spirit dies when they have to circle the block back around for a freeway entrance.

It’s a jungle out there but it is also so nice to have such a low carbon footprint, and to get that much healthy exercise for my heart, getting sexier bodies, feasting on those endorphines every single day. I can’t give it up. Not until I am bankrupt and handicapped, at least.

– Michael Moorcock, Mother London

You know, as carefully as you’ve explained and analyzed that, I have to say I completely agree with you now. That analysis of the scenario makes perfect sense and you made several quite good points. Considering these points, I’m going to have to say I agree that it’s very unlikely they were targeting this person as a suspected criminal.

I do however have to say I still disagree with Antinous’ choice of arguments. It’s obvious that many of them are dancing on the border of ad hominem, which is something that is rightfully frowned upon.

You need think through this again and maybe re-post.

1. This is aggression on the part of the bicyclists for what purpose? I thought they were trying to show how we should all ride bikes, not how big of jerks they are.

2. Pedestrians have the right-of-way. It doesn’t matter about your “momentum” – you are supposed to be under control of your bike and able to stop at all times.

3. This isn’t about “traffic”. This is about obeying traffic SIGNALS.

4. Maybe. I thought that, too. If she ran over somebody, and that’s a big if, since the guy rode off without saying anything or pressing charges, she should be charged and prosecuted.

Two problems with the CM response, though. One, acting like bunch of children and hitting a car driven by a woman with kids in the car? Bad PR, if not shameful. Two, what are the odds she’s going to accidentally hit someone when many bikes swarm her car? If the CMers were riding safely, there wouldn’t have been a problem, is my guess.

Part of the reason for the way CM is currently organized is that in past incarnations in several cities, when CM did attempt to organize and seek out parade/demonstration permits, they were routinely refused. By not having a formal organization, CM is really just a group of people riding together. Routes are decided on an ad hoc basis, and behavior tends to be regulated by the group. Yes, we do cork and ride through red lights, and yes, that is breaking the law. However, as TNH very succinctly put it, this the one day a month that drivers have to notice us.

Like any mixed group of people (including drivers), it includes a wide range of personalities, and some of them are jerks. However, given that the group itself is mostly self-regulating, there are many other people on the rides who not only behave in a civilized manner, but call out those who do not (for those of you who feel that any large group of cyclists tying up traffic for an hour or two one day a month constitutes uncivilized behavior, we will probably never see eye to eye, but drive safely!).
I have ridden in CM in both Chicago and Toronto, and for every angry driver, I usually see ten others smiling and waving, and patiently waiting for us to pass.

There was an incident on last Friday’s ride in Toronto that was very similar to the one in Seattle. A driver didn’t feel like waiting and decided to bump one of the corkers with his vehicle. They were then surrounded by a number of riders and loudly mocked. This lasted until most of the pack had passed, at which point other riders called for the group to continue. The driver and his passenger were left relatively unmolested. While CM may be an annoyance, I do not think that it justifies vehicular assault. At the same time, given the routine harassment I face as a law abiding cyclist in the city, not to mention the outright dangerous behavior on the part of drivers, I think a monthly disruption of business as usual on our roads is somewhat justified. If that makes anyone want to assault me, with their car or otherwise, they should seriously re-think their priorities.

Ride safe, take the lane, share the road and do stay off the sidewalks.

I don’t know whether I’m more disgusted by the cops or the people defending them.

I’m more troubled by the number of people who are saying “It’s OK that X got harmed (or X should get punished) because X belongs to a group I don’t like (optional: because someone in X’s group did something I didn’t like).”

where X = cop
or X = Critical Mass member
or X = bicyclist
or X = automobile driver

etc

This is happening because of the Delgonian Overlords’ evil hallucination powers. Where is a Lensman when you need one?

And no, it’s not up to *only* the cyclist. You don’t think that you have MORE responsibility as the one who has the ability to kill or maim a neighbor? Please, sell your car and ride a bike instead; you don’t need a license for that.

#304: I find it hard to believe that CM’ers wouldn’t get out of the way of an ambulance.

===
NYC Bike harassment anecdote: my wife and friend were ticketed for riding on the sidewalk…by a truck throughfare in an industrial zone with 0 pedestrians in sight. And knowing my wife, she probably wasn’t riding any faster than you might jog. The most annoying part — you can’t just pay the ticket like a vehicular offense; you have to take a day off to go to court.

Yeah, technically they were in the wrong, but each and every one of us breaks the law in some manner. It’s unnerving that police can use that to selectively harass you.

(FYI, my wife and friend are a consultant and a lawyer, respectively, with no ink or shit in their faces. I hate to think what else happens around NYC.)

One we don’t know what the cyclist did before hand (and he may have been someone that the cops were looking for and happened to see him riding along).

Two: Its Critical Mass. These folks don’t have a good reputation anywhere, in any city. Anything to knock them down a notch is fine by me.

And before any holier than though folks get on my case, I pretty much walk every where in San Francisco and I have been attacked, “corked” and other things while I have been walking to the train station. The most recent incident involved 10 cyclist going through a red light and nearly running down not only me but several other pedestrians.

Its time these rides are stopped for good.

It’s clearly not an accidental collision. If you look at the way the cop’s feet are planted and how he’s pushing with his whole body that’s obvious (58s in s a good place to watch). His front foot is planted almost exactly under the bike and he throws his whole force into the shove. It’s also obvious because if it had been an accidental collision the cop would have been knocked over, the bike had a lot more momentum, but it’s the biker who goes flying and the cop who stays on his feet. The cyclist also was driving the exact same way as everyone before him, clearly steering around the cop, giving him as wide a berth as possible given the location of the curb and the number of people on it.

It’s also clearly not a traffic stop. I’ve been stopped by a cop while biking and they do the obvious thing, they stand with their hand extended in the “stop” gesture and order you to pull over:

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/827/35092643.JPG

They step into your path as well, but more so you see them, and not like this. This cop didn’t yell stop, and he didn’t have a hand up to order the biker to stop. Instead he had his hands at his waist right up until he suddenly brought them up to shove the biker to the sidewalk.

I can’t imagine any scenario that would justify a surprise attack like this. Even if this guy had been witnessed running someone down earlier and escaping from the scene, you at least need to warn him to stop.

when drivers get impatient because you’ve come to a complete stop at a light or stop sign, and are unable to get up to speed quickly enough for their pleasure, they stomp on the gas and go around you.

sometimes in the intersection.

nearly always unsafely.

very often without giving you (the biker) very much space in passing.

all of these are a greater danger to a cyclist’s health and well being than treating the stop sign or light effectively as a yield sign. i.e. not being an asshole and stealing someone’s right of way, but proceeding cautiously as long as theres noone else coming.

if you were to do the same in a car, however, you would significantly endanger others (you are several feet further back, with reduced visibility, in a car) for the benefit of saving yourself maybe a couple of cents in gas.

comparable? i think not.