Officer Is Charged in Hit and Run
[From NYTimes.com]
A New York City police officer accused of hitting a bicyclist with his car and driving off without reporting it was charged on Tuesday with assault and reckless driving.
On the afternoon of June 14, the authorities said, the officer, Louis Ramos, was headed the wrong way on Jay Street in Brooklyn, with his lights flashing and siren blaring, when he drove through a red light and struck the cyclist at Sands Street.
Officer Ramos and his partner, Paris Anderson, got out of their police car, dragged the cyclist to the curb, handed him a tissue and drove off without calling an ambulance or reporting the accident, said Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, in a criminal complaint. Surveillance cameras captured the encounter.
The cyclist suffered cuts and bruises on his face and a fractured wrist. He was treated at Long Island College Hospitaland released.
In addition to assault and reckless driving, Officer Ramos was charged with leaving the scene of an accident where there had been an injury. He pleaded not guilty. He and Officer Anderson were suspended without pay last month.
The case comes amid heightened friction between police and cyclists. Two videos showing officers shoving cyclists to the ground in Times Square during group rides — one in July 2008, the other in March 2007 — were widely seen online. One of the officers, Sgt. Timothy Horohoe, was found to have lied but did not face serious sanctions. The other officer, Patrick Pogan, resigned from the force and was convicted of lying, but a judge decided against jail time or probation.
[Webmaster - Assaulting bicyclists seems to be a common past-time for the NYPD...]
The NYPD in action in July 2008...
And in March 2007...
