It would be amusing if it weren't so sad. Here, people mourn over allegedly law-abiding cyclists assaulted by cars and jeer allegedly law-defying cyclists assaulted by cars. We conveniently forget that in the eyes of most drivers, there is nothing to distinguish the law-abiding cyclist from the law-defying one. Both are worth little more than dogs, and both are fit to run over, providing one intimates strongly enough s/he "didn't see the cyclist", or that said cyclist "came out of nowhere."

We're town mice making fun of country mice. We don't seem to get that in the eyes of humans (drivers), we're still bloody mice. And this will continue to be our downfall.

You really believe that drivel? Such drama. Gimme a break son, nobody's out to get you.

Cars treat me fine just about all the time. I can count the number of incidents I've hand in the last few years on one hand.

Yes, yes, you're different. You only need to look out for yourself; once cars don't run you over, to hell with every other cyclist on the road. Cars respect you, and as long as you follow the rules, you have nothing to fear! Cyclists who get hit are asking for it...

This sense of individualism (or shortsightedness?) is a perfect example of why there are so few cyclists out there. The ones on the road see other cyclists as at fault when bad stuff happens and believe cars see them as equals...right until they get run over.

Well, that certainly wasn't very nice of the officer. Kind of a cheap shot, if you ask me.

... Brad

As usual, folks, until all the facts are in, everything is just speculation. Looks like the cop was out of line but we don't know what, if anything, led up to it.

CM riders have a bad reputation, true.

NYC cops have a bad reputation too . . . they've been known to overreact just a smidgen.

Hopefully . . . (in our dreams) . . . we'll get the truth, the whole truth, and so on . . . . . hopefully.

Where you from boy? Maybe you need to move. There are tens of thousands of bikers around where I live. Many of them are very politically active regarding cycling advocacy. Do accidents happen? Sure. We sort those out on a case by case basis.

bored bored bored generation.

Maybe you have a different perspective in DC. I've been in high- and low- density zones (Boston and Kentucky), and in both places, there are no illusions of equality between cyclists and cars except in the minds of future road chum. If you find parity and respect to be the case where you are, count your stars. It's not the norm in this country.

I'm a young idiot so don't take anything i say too seriously, but it seems like your parents and grandparents went through that tragedy, not the first hand perspective you seemed (to me) to be implying you had.

I agree that a single instance of a police officer getting aggressive is nothing compared to post WWII eastern Europe, but i also agree with the other guy that these things start as innocent little things.

I certainly hope you don't feel the need to justify any event of your life to me, i am pretty insignificant in just about any scheme of things you wish to look at.

Critical Mass riders are not really so much idiots, that is really like saying all demonstrators are idiots (+ they made a pretty good stink at the republican national conventions).

In this case, the rider was actually charged with assault on an officer and resisting arrest, just another instance of bikers getting the shaft in NYC.

Me too.

Except for the afternoon commute during the week or so after a CM has "promoted" bikers' rights. But I've never known a CMer who is commuter or roadie, so they don't have to put up with the ill will they create.

Screw CM.

You don't have to screw CM. They do seem to screw themselves rather nicely.

if it wasnt a cop, and I was the biker I would have gone for the overbar- tackle. I saw a police officer do that off a bike once... I dont like cops using force like that but it was still pretty sweet

Another idiotic cop, nothing new to see here.

Here is a copy of the official police report. The police officer says that the bicyclist intentionally aimed his bicycle directly at the police officer, hitting the police officer, knocking the police officer to the ground and injuring the police officer's arms. The police officer arrested the bicyclist for assulting a police officer and the bicyclist spent 2 nights in jail before he could post bond.

Do you honestly believe that in the spirit of the CM ride, a cyclist who had just *edit* allegedly *edit* kicked someone and was being called out by a cop would simply roll to a stop and put his wrists out ? You've got to be kidding me. I don't know much about CM rides, but to me it looks to me like if a bunch of cyclist sat around and thought up a plan to shed the worst kind of light on the cyclist community as possible, it would look a lot like a CM ride.

I'm not going to participate in a violent, mob mentality activity filled with purposeful breaking of the law and not expect the worst as a possibility. Honestly if I was out there and saw a cyclist tormenting pedestrians and trying to (even if he wasn't successful) kick a woman on foot....I'D feel like taking the opportunity to drag him off his bike, and I'd have a hard time believing that the rest of you would feel the same way.

Cyclist need to stick together to some degree, and support each other when we're in the right. If a cyclist is in the wrong, I believe we have no obligation to provide backup, simply by association. All this defensive thinking is what perpetuates the idea that all cyclists are of the same mind, which we're not. Defensive, abrupt thinking is what caused that group of cyclist to turn on the driver of that Subaru a while back after the drunk cyclist attacked the man's car with his bike. What kind of message would it have sent to drivers across the country if instead of turning on the driver, they proceeded to drag the dumb ***** cyclist off the road and unleash their frustration on him for being so careless?

You want to see the worst in people?...then make them feel like you hate them, would love the opportunity to sue them, taking advantage of scare tactics in order to break the law in a disrespectful way. That's exactly what our impression of drivers toward us doing to us. Giving opportunity for the worst of us to come out, and this is hard to deny.

The whole argument of keeping authority figures out of our business is based on our ability to self govern. We seem to have a hard time doing this, so why should we be angry when somebody finally steps up to do something about it? If you can't manage yourself, and ride in a way that both exercises your own rights and freedoms, without stripping others (drivers/peds etc.) of their own rights and freedoms, then expect somebody at some point to communicate this to you. The Officer in this story did just that. And I don't feel personally attacked because he was violent with somebody on a bike. I feel like a bit of justice took place. I have never felt like I was in any personal danger when around the Police, on or off the bike. And if the cyclist (or...guy riding a bicycle) in this story wasn't being stupid, he would have had nothing to worry about either.

-Jeremy

Or it could just be that the cop lied in the complaint. One of the two.

Let's take the cop's side now. I'm sure they'll return the favor the next time a texting SUVer mows down a cyclist who "swerved right in front of me, I swear!"

Looks like they'll be playing the video in a few minutes on CNN. They just teased it.

But the video shows the cyclist angling AWAY from the cop if anything, and the cop taking out the cyclist like a NY Giants secondary hit man. Unless the cyclist was armed or was a clear and present danger to others present, that does appear to be felony assault on the part of the officer.

Just to clarify - the cop lied in the complaint.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/A...=1&oref=slogin

The complaint said Long, 29, deliberately steered his bicycle into the officer, causing both of them to fall to the ground.

What a lying ******. Hope he gets whats coming to him.

Doesn't matter. It's safer to support the authoritarian power structure and mock fellow cyclists. Then when one of us really gets hurt, we can all act surprised that police and drivers treat us as speedbumps.

Then at the earliest opportunity, we can all take the sides of the police and/or cars against cyclists we don't approve of. And then one of the "good" cyclists can get run over, and the cycle (hehe) can continue!

And we wonder why we have so little protection as cyclists in this country. Just look at this thread. The majority of people here went out of their way to slam this guy and take the side of the anti-cycling authority figure. Good grief.

The officer was way out of line, no question about that even if the cyclist had kicked at someone and the fact he lied makes it worse. No sympathy for CMers from me though because it would be hard for me to stand by while these jerks ride around mocking the law and acting like a bunch of idiots.

Critical mass is quite a bit more dorky than I had imagined it.