The Whole Truth and Nothing But- Police, Lies, Truth, and Their Accidental Concurrence

Perhaps you saw the story about the New York City cop who assaulted the bicyclist who was taking part in a mass bike demonstration in Manhattan. Here is a CNN clip in case you missed it:




It seems that the officer involved claimed in his official report that the bicyclist was being operated in a dangerous manner and that he was, in fact the target of a maniac. As Jim Dwyer reports in the New York Times:

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.”

...

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.

Then, there is this second recent example of police stupidity captured on video,

as reported in the the New York Daily News:

You have to ask yourself, How can these cops be so stupid?

I have a great deal of respect for police officers. They have one of society's toughest jobs as each day they confront dangerous situations- domestic disputes, drugs, violence, crime, filth. They handle all of those nasty, smelly, dirty and dangerous situations that polite society refuses to do. And we give them the power and authority to kill on our behalf.

At times, they are our heroes.

But there are other times when they are less than fabled blue knights. As with any group of humans, they have their failures, and when those failures become public they call into question the honesty and integrity of the thin blue line.


Many years ago, I was a student at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which was and continues to be popular with police officers and police higher officials and well respected in the world of law enforcement. I became friendly with many police officers and they took me into their confidence enough to introduce me to the term, "testi-lying".

I learned that some police officers had their own unique interpretation of the oath they take when testifying to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Perhaps they thought the "So help me god" part was really a prayer to cover their imminent misdeeds and a plea for absolution.

They shared with me their experiences of manufacturing evidence to put away bad guys. They told me that they would carry a "cold piece", an untraceable gun, that they could drop near someone they shot in order to claim self defense. It seemed the lies were almost the norm, neither condemned nor condoned by either police officials or the prosecuting authorities.

Unfortunately, as evidenced by our two video examples, the police culture continues to provide fertile grounds for misconduct as it is shielded by the Blue Wall of Silence.

While one hopes such conduct occurs only to a minimal degree, in this You Tube-age police will be under more civilian video scrutiny. Lies and cover ups-on the open street will be exposed. Will the unseemly side of police culture change or will it just be driven further underground?