Current News |
When Official Truth
Collides With Cheap Digital Technology
By JIM DWYER
Published: July 30, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/nyregion/30about.html?scp=1&sq=dennis%20kyne&st=cse
(worth checking out this link which has
video clips to watch)
Around 9:30 on Friday night, a bicyclist
pedaling down Seventh Avenue veered to
the left, trying to avoid hitting a
police officer who was in the middle of
the street.
But the officer, Patrick Pogan, took a
few quick steps toward the biker,
Christopher Long, braced himself and
drove his upper body into Mr. Long.
Officer Pogan, an all-star football
player in high school, hit Mr. Long as
if he were a halfback running along the
sidelines, and sent him flying.
As of Tuesday evening, a videotape of
the encounter had been viewed about
400,000 times on YouTube. “I can’t
explain why it happened,” Police
Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said on
Tuesday. “I have no understanding as to
why that would happen.”
But this episode was not just a powerful
crash between one bicyclist and a police
officer. It may turn out to be yet
another head-on collision between false
stories told by some police officers in
criminal court cases and documentary
evidence that directly contradicts them.
And while in many instances the
inaccurate stories have been tolerated
by police superiors and prosecutors,
Officer Pogan’s account is getting
high-level scrutiny.
Later that night, Officer Pogan composed
a story of his encounter with Mr. Long.
It bore no resemblance to the events
seen on the videotape. Based on the
sworn complaint, Mr. Long was held for
26 hours on charges of attempted assault
and disorderly conduct.
Over the weekend, though, the videotape,
made by a tourist in Times Square with
his family, fell into the hands of
people involved with Critical Mass, the
monthly bicycle rally that Mr. Long had
been riding in.
The availability of cheap digital
technology — video cameras, digital
cameras, cellphone cameras — has ended a
monopoly on the history of public
gatherings that was limited to the
official narratives, like the sworn
documents created by police officers and
prosecutors. The digital age has brought
in free-range history.
Hundreds of cases against people
arrested during the 2004 Republican
National Convention collapsed under an
avalanche of videotaped evidence that
either completely contradicted police
accounts, or raised significant
questions about their reliability. The
videotapes were made by people involved
in the protests, bystanders, tourists
and police officers.
At the New York Public Library, a small
group holding a banner against one of
the stone lions was arrested and charged
with blocking traffic in the middle of
42nd Street, although video showed they
were on the steps, and nowhere near the
street.
In another case at the library, a
police officer testified that he and
three other officers had to carry one
protester, Dennis Kyne, by his hands and
feet down the library steps. Videotape
showed that Mr. Kyne walked down the
steps under his own power, and that the
officer who testified against him had no
role in his arrest. The charges were
dismissed; the Manhattan district
attorney’s office declined to bring
perjury charges against the officer who
gave the testimony.
Dozens of complaints were sworn by
police officers who said they had
witnessed people violating the law on
Fulton Street and near Union Square, but
later admitted under oath that their
only involvement was to process the
arrests, and that they had not actually
seen the disorderly conduct that was
charged.
An assistant to District Attorney Robert
M. Morgenthau wrote to the Police
Department to stress the importance of
officers’ not swearing to things they
had not seen for themselves. The
prosecutors said the confusion
surrounding mass arrests made it hard to
bring perjury charges.
The case of Christopher Long and Officer
Pogan is shaping up as another example
of an official narrative being directly
challenged by videotape.
In a criminal court complaint, Officer
Pogan wrote that Mr. Long deliberately
attacked him with the bike — although
the videotape shows Mr. Long veering
away from Officer Pogan, who pursues him
toward the curb.
The officer said he was knocked to the
ground by Mr. Long. Throughout the tape,
though, he remains on his feet, even
after banging into Mr. Long.
The police officer wrote that Mr. Long
had been “weaving” in and out of
traffic, “thereby forcing multiple
vehicles to stop abruptly or change
their direction in order to avoid
hitting” Mr. Long. However, in the
videotape, it appears that there are no
cars on the street.
Mr. Long is due back in court in early
September. By then, most of Mr. Long’s
bruises are likely to have healed. The
prognosis for the truth is not so clear.
E-mail:
dwyer@nytimes.com
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