The bike rider who was clobbered by a cop in Times Square didn’t do anything to instigate the smackdown — but he did try to flee and taunted the rookie officer afterwards, a witness testified yesterday.
“You’re pawns in the game,” Christopher Long shouted, according to Alan Fox — a fellow cyclist in the Critical Mass bike event in July 2008. Fox said Long also yelled, “Assault me! Assault me!” as he tried in vain to wriggle from the cops’ grasp.
Fox testified in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday that he was riding behind Long, and saw Officer Patrick Pogan — who has since retired from the force — tackle him as he rode by on his bike.
“To me it looked like he was pulling him off” the bike, Fox said.
Fox unknowingly recorded a video of the lead-up to the now-infamous takedown, as well as Long’s efforts to get away afterward.
In his opening statement, prosecutor Ryan Connor told jurors what Pogan did next was worse — falsifying a sworn complaint to cover up his actions with a “distorted version of events.” That included a bogus claim that Long had “rammed” Pogan with his bike.
Pogan’s lawyer, Stuart London, portrayed his client as a “bright-eyed new officer” who ran afoul of a pot-smoking “opportunist” who “orchestrated” the whole thing in hopes of cashing in.
He noted that Long had already collected a $65,000 civil settlement with the city.