MB Civic

go to interview

an excerpt..

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And initially, the biker was arrested and charged, is that correct?

EILEEN CLANCY: He was arrested and charged with assaulting the police officer, which is a very serious charge. So he had two misdemeanor charges, I think, and a lower charge. And the police officer made a statement that he’d been basically run into, deliberately run into, by the bicyclist. And I think you can see from the video that the bicyclist is veering away from the police officer, who’s pursuing this fellow.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And the officer claimed initially that the biker was veering in and out of traffic and aimed for him, is that what he said?

EILEEN CLANCY: That’s what the police affidavit says, so that’s what was sworn to by the police officer under a penalty of perjury, which in this case would be a felony.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And in fact, there’s no cars in the video.

EILEEN CLANCY: It doesn’t appear that there are. I mean, I wasn’t there. And what you can see there, it’s just right in front of you. There’s police officers in the road, standing in the middle of the road for some reason. It’s not clear why. And then the bicyclists are going past right there in Times Square.

This videotape, I think, is the first tape that—you know, we’ve been associated with, we’ve helped to get some publicity around it. But it’s the first tape of this kind that we’ve ever been even a little bit near that’s really gone viral, which means that it’s basically exploded across the internet. And it’s been viewed one million times on YouTube. So that was pretty amazing. And it was covered by, you know, all the local television stations and the national news media, and there’s just been tremendous interest in it.

And the question has come up now, what’s going to happen to the charges? This young man is still charged. The charges haven’t been dropped yet. They may be dropped. And also, the police officer actually hasn’t been dismissed from his job; he’s been put on modified duties, on suspension. So his badge has been taken away, and his gun has been taken away, and he’s behind a desk. And so, the police department has to decide and the district attorney has to decide what is to be done. If they determine that the police officer actually lied, you know, what is to be done with the situation here?