Saturday, December 13, 2003

The gist of the story is this:
While riding my bike in Warsaw, some asshole decided it was a good idea to hit me with his car. Well, as a lifetime biker and a former New York City bike messenger, I didn’t appreciate this maneuver and administer a medium sized right fist to his head as a way of expressing my anger over his driving. What I didn’t know at the time, was that the guy was an off duty cop. What happened? Well, the cop went to the police and told them a rather remarkable tale about how I stood there in broad daylight and pounded his pristine car, his body and his head for perhaps two minutes with my bare hands, through my bike at his car and then made a mad dash to escape only to be corralled as he instantly commanded an entire squadron of police officers to detain me. He claimed broken teeth and about $750 in damages to his car… He wanted some money you see.
I think they call this extortion. Or perhaps police corruption. Or maybe just simply lying…
And what did I do? Well, I told them no, he hit me with his car, I wish to press charges and I will not pay. And what did they do when I said this to them? Well, what happened was that I was made to sit in Poland without my passport for 10 months while they tried me for a number of crimes that had nothing to do with punching the guy in the mouth and made me pay for the privilege of having it done to me. And that’s what the book is all about.

Now, all of this started on May 15th 2002 and has been going on without end ever since. And, I have been suffering because of it. As of this date, I haven’t even heard from the courts in over seven months. I want restitution from Poland for what they did to me, and I want people to know about it.

There are also quite a few documents from the case that I want to make public that did not make it into the book- I say let it all go! A little fresh air never hurt anybody did it?

I want to use this blog spot as a forum and as a tool to help get more specific information about the case out into the public. I guess the easiest thing is to just read the book. Just send me an E-mail for questions and comments. I'll try and get something out about things again tomorrow.