NYPD Officer Assaults Cyclist For Running Red Light

A caller recounts a recent incident where he was biking in New York City and was assaulted by an NYPD officer.

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Caller: You know I ride my bicycle to work every day. as a lot of people in New York do. I was coming down off the Manhattan Bridge in the bike lane approaching a red traffic light. and you know I know there are a ton of cyclists you know in new york city that you know just are running these things like you know wild and it can be dangerous. I'm not one of those people. I slowed down to about five miles per hour. and could ensure that there was nobody I know crossing this pedestrian crosswalk. I saw two cops to the right just rolled through. I was like you know nothing is going on here. I'm just gonna stop in the middle of the road in the bike lane. so I roll through slowly and they flag me down. so I'm like okay cool. you know I'm on my way to work I'm not trying to be arrested so I of course move to a stop. and this guy officer runs at me grabs me by the arm throws me to the ground off my bike. What I like is that I ride a fixed gear bike which, if people don't know what that is, the pedals constantly move and I have my feet strapped into the pedals as well. so like there's no way for me to brace for my fall. when you know this occurs as well so you know I just hit the ground hard and I'm kind of shaken up. and you know I get up and we go through the process of you know what's you know why did you do that I was stopping. you know, of course, he protested saying I wasn't stopping which is absurd. I was just, you know, coming to a slow state stop. and there were pedestrian witnesses there being like you know you just assaulted this kid. you know what's going on if he's of course like oh this does not assault. blah blah. issues me a 200 ticket. you know the whole thing. And I go about my day because I said I'm on my way to work. You know, any time you engage an officer it's a calculated risk of like to me at least. What can you say? How far can you push this kind of public discourse in front of pedestrians before they like to find a reason to take you in. Do you know what I mean? So I just, you know, I went about my day. but I mean it's left me with two questions which is you know I guess just the nature of that you know you know what we think that is it is it excessive force? is it assault? and then my second question is like you know how do we establish what the law is in these kinds of gray areas? because you know I think we all understand that the bicycling infrastructure is not what it should be. You know pedestrians and cyclists have to constantly negotiate with each other in terms of what's happening. you know people are you know constantly jaywalking. which is also technically against the law. you know and we do establish the law through this dry articulation of an antiquated penal code that's often not up to date with the movement of people in the world. Or is it through a shared precedent and a shared understanding of how we take care of each other? because the latter is kind of how I move through these kinds of gray areas. because you know I think just as easily you know stopping at a traffic light in a bike lane where people don't expect you to be stopped could be potentially equally as dangerous as moving through it. or sometimes more so. with the speed at which you know, people are riding bicycles in the bike lane.