New Yorkers and people across the U.S. were stunned to see the YouTube video of a police officer tackling a bicyclist in Times Square, unprovoked and without warning. Even more surprising, in a sworn statement, the police officer alleged that he ordered the cyclist to stop, and that instead the cyclist "steered into" the officer and drove the bicycle over him, knocking him down and injuring him. The video clearly shows the cyclist veering away from the officer and getting tackled, football-style, landing on the sidewalk. It appears that he was never ordered to stop.

This is not an isolated episode. NYPD officers arresting innocent civilians for no reason and then fabricating charges has become commonplace since the 2004 Republican National Convention.

Here are two examples of this behavior from the past:

Dennis Kyne was arrested on the steps of the New York Public Library on August 31, 2004. The District Attorney was forced to dismiss all charges against Kyne when this videotape which utterly contradicted police testimony was shown at his trial.

In a second example, Alexander Dunlop was walking his bicycle up Second Avenue near the spot where the police stopped the Critical Mass ride. He walked over to a line of helmeted police officers to ask some questions. He was later arrested. Two sections of videotape were removed from the police evidence tape by the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

This is the first section which was removed. The second piece of video shows Alexander Dunlop being calmly taken into custody by an NYPD officer who places his hand on Dunlop's arm. Dunlop was initially charged with Resisting Arrest.

When I-Witness Video exposed the editing of the police tape, Dunlop's charges were dropped.