This video posted here at the Huffington Post and shown earlier this week on Countdown with Keith Olbermann shows an out of control, rogue officer, bodycheck a bicyclist into the ground. Had the bicyclist fallen differently, his head would have cracked on the concrete and he would have died.
The cop, according to Olbermann, claimed in his supporting deposition, under penalty of perjury, that the bicyclist attacked him and resisted arrest. Here is a copy of Patrick Pogan's sworn deposition. Watch the video first for the video speaks for itself and it will piss you off. Then laugh at the number of times Mr. Pogan perjures himself.
There are many fine cops in New York City but it's been Giuliani and Bloomberg Time for 16 years. The NYPD starts its pay for rookies at $25,000 a year and the system sucks. While many are cops for the love of being a cop and they are phenomenal, the bottom line in life is that you often get what you pay for. The NYPD pays cops crap and thus many of the people they hire are crap because the good people work elsewhere.
There are some excellent law enforcement departments around the country and also many terrible ones. Our job should be to reform the bad ones and praise the good ones. Many of the police officers who work for the NYPD are nothing but criminals with badges. To me it's anti-cop to protect these individuals but pro-cop to insist that these individuals be fired and replaced with higher paying people who are better qualified and adherents to the practices of qualitative law enforcement.
How many people are in jail right now because a member of the NYPD fabricated evidence and/or made up a bogus criminal complaint and lied about the facts under oath? How many people are in jail right now because a police officer falsely arrested a person because of his skin color or political affiliation? And how many more people have to be shot 41 or 50 times only to walk away scott free?
Instead of suspending Patrick Pogan without pay and placing Mr. Pogan under arrest for assault, battery, reckless endangerment, and perjury, the NYPD has put him on "modified assignment." According to the NYPD, modified assignment is not a form of discipline.
Being a member of law enforcement means you need to be held to a higher standard than the general public. Being a cop is a noble profession but we must get rid of all the bad apples. Once the bad apples are removed, I support doubling the salary for starting police officers in New York City and restoring honor and dignity to the NYPD. Until then, problems will continue because you can never have effective law enforcement when people can not trust the cops.