Finally, after months years of the press not covering the brutality of the NYPD in regards to the Critical Mass Bikerides, they decided to put it on their television screens and newspapers for more than five seconds. The video from last week showed the cop in question to be lying about his interaction with one bike rider and thankfully had him fired. Though sadly, for many New Yorkers this is the first time anyone's heard about what goes on. That is why right now, we must speak up on the pattern of abuse, not just the one incident.
From The Gothamist:
Environmental group Times Up! is taking advantage of all the publicity generated by the video of a cop shoving a cyclist off his bike by reminding everyone that this is hardly the first such incident, nor the only one caught on video. The group points out that in 2007 one Richard Vazquez was taken down by a cop in Times Square during a Critical Mass ride, and in 2006 Adrienne Wheeler, a Critical Mass legal observer, was pulled off her bike by then-NYPD-Assistant-Chief Bruce Smolka, who's since retired. (The city settled with Wheeler for $37,000.) In a statement, Times Up! asserts that, “Unfortunately the July 25, 2008 incident is part of a pattern of targeting Critical Mass bike riders.” What's also unfortunate is that the production values on these old videos fail to live up to the new gold standard for police brutality porn.
What needs to happen in order to prevent another senseless beating is something that defies the status quo. Instead of simply dismissing the one bad cop, there should be a formal inquiry into the NYPD and their systemic problems with people who want to ride their bikes together. All these citizens are doing is to promote bicycle riding as a means of transportation, not to irk the police. Perhaps some sort of training is required to inform those ignoramuses that yes, riding a bike is perfectly legal and not an excuse to exercise some sort of internal rage.
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