The NYPD flattened illegal motorcycles in Brooklyn Tuesday as they announced their zero-tolerance policy on roaring bikes and ATVs.
The ear-splitting, booming engines of motorcycle hordes racing through the city streets have been a thorn in the side of New Yorkers for years. However, noise pollution isn’t the only issue with these vehicles. Mayor Eric Adams, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, and fellow police officials called them a danger to pedestrians and other drivers.
In doing so, Adams followed up with a spectacle that his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, threw on Staten Island last September, sending forth a bulldozer to flatten the seized vehicles under its weight.
Standing inside Erie Base and Auto Pound located at 700 Columbia St. on June 21, Adams surveyed a sea of confiscated motorcycles and praised the NYPD for the large seizure of these vehicles since the beginning of the year. The mayor also declared a war on these dirt bikes over the summer, stating that their presence will not be tolerated.
“I stated on the campaign trail that we were going to focus on these dirt bikes and ATVs. They are not only a nuisance and an annoyance to us, but extremely dangerous. And we know that we see them all the time, and we hear them at all times at night,” Adams said. “So today as we stand in the shadow of the Freedom Tower, we are freeing ourselves from these destructive pieces of machinery that’s on our streets and they will be crushed today.”
As a bulldozer prepared to ravage a lineup of about 100 motorcycles, Sewell joined in taking a victory lap due to the number of illegal vehicles removed from the streets.
“Since January the NYPD has seized over 2000 of these vehicles city wide as the mayor said that’s nearly over 80% more than we took by this time last year. And today we’re ensuring that the bikes behind me will never return to our streets. They will never again endanger another child, another grandmother on the sidewalk or another family simply trying to enjoy a day in the park. They will never again have a place in New York City,” Commissioner Sewell said.
According to Chief of Patrol Jeffrey Maddrey, the NYPD are putting limits on how far they will go to apprehend these reckless racers. While Maddrey refused to go into detail into how the bikes are taken, they did say officers will not give chase to active bike riders out of fear for the safety of all involved.
In order to showcase that the city has no place for these bikes, Mayor Adams gave the thumbs up to demolish them by swinging a checkered flag which sent a bulldozer careening over the motorcycles and scooters, sending pieces of debris flying.
