Former cop Patrick Pogan—who was caught on video slamming a cyclist off his bike during a 2008 Critical Mass ride—took the stand today to defend himself against charges of misdemeanor assault and falsifying a police report. At times, the testimony defied reality—at least, reality as it appears on the videotape, which depicts Pogan shoving cyclist Christopher Long to the pavement in a seemingly unprovoked attack. But Pogan insists he was just doing what he had to do to defend himself from Long:
The cyclist came at me—and I had to stop him from hurting me. I thought he ran through a red light. He had his hands in the air... He had up what I perceived to be a middle finger. I told him to stop. We locked eyes. I saw him going toward the sidewalk. He's either going there to go around me or he's going there to stop. I took a walk to the side. I see him rise up on his bike. I see him crouch down his shoulder as he's coming toward me... at this point I know he's going to try to use that shoulder against me.
Long testified that he turned his shoulder toward Pogan at the last minute, to brace himself, but from Pogan's point of view, Long was trying to "scare me or use that shoulder to come through me." And according to Pogan, taxpayers should be grateful for his restraint. "I could have used my mace but that would have cost the city more than $65,000," Pogan told jurors. ($65K is the amount Long received in his settlement.)
"Maybe I'll use my baton," Pogan said he wondered, in the moment before he slammed Long to the curb. "But the baton was useless at that point. There was no way I could have used any of the tools at my disposal. I prepared myself for a hit. He was coming toward me. I braced for impact. I lowered my shoulder. There was a collision. I used my arms to get that bicycle away from me." Pogan initially claimed in the police report that Long had knocked him to the ground, but today he conceded that was inaccurate: "It's not true; I did not go down at that moment. I went down two later times in that incident." Pogan also testified that he "never intended to lie at any point" in his report.
Yesterday Pogan's former NYPD superior, Sergeant Eric Perez, testified that Pogan, a rookie with just 11 days on the job, had been instructed to observe the more experienced officers, and was in Times Square "as backup, not to actually engage and stop." But today Pogan insisted a captain told him, "Do what you have to do to stop them." Ironically, he was also warned that the Critical Mass cyclists could be carrying cameras, and told jurors today, "Have that in the back of your mind, that whatever actions you take, you will be on camera."
