Follow Up on Critical Mass-Bicycle Assault

Yesterday I reported on the mixed verdict (as such verdicts are called) handed down by a NYC jury in the case of former NYPD rookie cop, Patrick Pogan's assault and battery upon hippie-dippy Christopher Long (pic).  The jury convicted Officer Pogan on two counts of felony fraud in the reporting on a non-existent assault and battery by Long on the police, but acquitted Pogan on the charges stemming from the assault and battery on the cyclist Long, which is preserved for posterity on YouTube video. 

There are so many reasons I find this stroy compelling, not the least of which is that so little real injury was involved, and it's a perfect morality tale.  The victim is sort of a dick, the cop a choir boy.  And yet it was the choir boy cop who committed the crime and then tried to cover it up.  We all see what the cop did by looking at the video, but a jury seeing what we see, refuses to convict the cop!  In talking about the jury nullification, one of the most light is cast on the mindsets by reading the coments at both the NY Daily News and the NY Post websites.   Laura Italiano, the reporter at the Post caught some interesting comments: 

"But Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, complained, 'This will have a chilling effect on every new, young officer when they realize that mistakes now become crimes.'


At the center of the case was the shove seen round the world -- garnering 5 million YouTube hits after another cyclist's video recording of the confrontation was posted.  The video clearly showed Pogan striding over to Long and pushing him down with his arm and shoulder."
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Patrick Lynch's "complaint" sounds like me whining about my tax nightmares. 

In reality I do think we want young officers to be "chilled" against assaulting cyclists and/or framing victims of crime.