NYPD’s Bedford Avenue Circular Saw Massacre Caught on Tape

The NYPD’s 94th Precinct in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is working hard to build on its reputation for being New York City’s most infamous bike thieves. Too much demand for bike parking in the neighborhood? "I know what to do," says the 94’s commanding officer Dennis M. Fulton. "Bust out the circular saw!"

This time Greenpoint resident Ben Running caught the whole thing on video tape. Running says the confiscated bicycles seemed to be in use:

They didn’t look like beat up bikes that had locked up there forever —
they looked like they were being used,” said Ben Running, a Greenpoint
resident and cyclist who filmed police removing the bikes from a street
sign near the corner of North Eighth Street. “Bikes shouldn’t be
removed without some kind of notice.

But an officer from the 94th told the New York Post that the bikes had been there for at least three months. Officer Cole Pletka said, “From a distance, they might have looked like they were rideable, but the bikes were on top of each and both wheels were bent."

As Gothamist notes, The local community board around Williamsburg has long advocated for a sane and sensible “tag
and clip” policy, where police would tag apparently inactive bicycles with a flyer warning that they are in danger of being taken by cops.
Running said, “Bikes shouldn’t be removed without some kind of notice.”

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