Another day, another cop driving recklessly — and then cursing out anyone who calls him out for it.
Check out the short video sent to us by a Friend of Streetsblog. In it, you can clearly see that the driver of the car — who had a police shield on his windshield and did not deny he was a cop — texting while driving. And then you can hear him mock the bicyclist who complains about it.
And then you can hear him call the cyclist, "Fucknuts" before speeding off:
Internet sleuths noticed the shield number and ID'd the perpy cop as Sgt. Michael Migliore of the 17th Precinct, who indeed is assigned badge 3303 that's pictured at the end of the video. Last year, he made more than $146,000 with overtime, according to the city payroll.
Update: The NYPD initially declined to respond to request for comment from Streetsblog about the incident, but on Tuesday morning, sent over the following (odd) statement, attributed to an unidentified "spokesperson":
"The vehicle in the video is not registered to a member of the service."
We are not sure what that means, so we'll keep following up.
It was an eerily quiet day in New York (I guess all the fireworks were in a downtown courtroom):
- Car-loving, traffic-hating Staten Island Advance columnist Tom Wrobleski has done it again — they guy is a living, breathing induced demand.
- Steve Cuozzo did the full Cuozzo on the good news that Citi Bike is expanding its e-bike fleet, even managing to link it to the war in Gaza. If any column deserves the "now do cars" treatment, this was it. (NY Post)
- For Cuozzo's edification, here's yesterday's carnage roundup:
- A motorist making an illegal U-turn killed a man on a motorcycle. (NYDN, QNS)
- There was another serious crash in Bedford-Stuyvesant caused by a driver who injured a pedestrian and a cyclist. (NYDN, NY Post)
- A driver ran over and killed a motorcyclist who had fallen off his chopper. (QNS)
- Another crossing guard was injured on-duty (NYDN), though none of the local outlets picked up our investigation into just how dangerous a job protecting our kids from drivers really is.
- Speaking of following our coverage, the Daily News and Crain's wrote up the yellow cabbies' suit against the city for not even bothering to study the impact of limitless EV cabs being unleashed on our streets.
- Once again: The 15-minute city concept is about convenience, not conspiracy. (Financial Times)
- Finally, today is Election Day for all of you who skipped early voting. The Daily News and amNY offered a roundup of the close races. Street safety advocates will be closely watching the race between incumbents Justin Brannan and Ari Kagen, forced into battle by new district lines (Gothamist). The Post focused on the ballot referenda (turn over your ballot!).
