Patrick Pogan

Patrick Pogan is a former member of the New York Police Department who drew national attention after a YouTube video surfaced and undermined his account of an arrest of a participant in a Critical Mass rally.
During the July 25, 2008, rally, in which bicycle riders flood the streets of New York City, Pogan body-checked Christopher Long, who was riding his bike in the rally. In a criminal complaint, Pogan wrote that he had ordered Long to stop because he was weaving in and out of traffic, forcing vehicles to swerve or stop, and generally disrupting the normal flow of traffic. Pogan wrote that he suffered lacerations on his arms because Long steered his bike into him and knocked him down, and that when he tried to place Long under arrest, Long began flailing, kicking and screaming, "You are pawns in the game!"
But within days, members of , the organization that sponsored the rally, posted a video of the incident on YouTube. The video contradicted almost every aspect of Pogan's report, showing that:
*all vehicular traffic had already been stopped for the rally and could not have been disrupted;
*as Pogan lunged toward Long's bicycle, Long steered away from him, not toward him; and
*Long was knocked to the ground, while Pogan remained on his feet.
Witnesses also disputed Pogan's account, saying that Long was the one to suffer bruises and cuts, that there was no traffic to obstruct, and that Pogan had simply scanned the group of cyclists to find one he could take down. and his father — himself a retired NYPD detective — defended him, saying,"You gotta do what you gotta do to make an arrest."
The prosecutor's office dismissed the charges against Long, and Pogan — having spent only three weeks as a police officer — was placed on a desk assignment while the city investigated the incident. On December 16, 2008, Pogan appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to felony charges of falsifying business records and filing a false instrument and misdemeanor charges of third-degree assault, second-degree harassment and making a punishable false written statement.
After the indictment, the police department suspended Pogan. His attorney said that his defense would center on the department's training procedures and claims that events occurring off-camera needed to be taken into account.

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