Now this is criminal mischief with cojones.
A driver with a record of removing his plate so he can speed without being caught struck a cyclist in Brooklyn on Monday morning — and put his license plate back on his ghost car in full view of a cop.
According to witnesses, at around 10 a.m., the driver of a large Jeep exited Brooklyn Hospital by making an illegal left turn onto DeKalb Avnue in order to access St. Felix Street without having to go around the block. The bike lane on DeKalb Avenue is not protected.
The driver made it across two lanes of westbound traffic, but hit the Citi Bike rider at St. Felix, injuring her seriously, said one witness.
The witness parked the victim's bike at a nearby rack and returned to find the driver putting his Florida plate back on his car as a cop watched:
The witness, who requested anonymity because they were urging cops to charge the driver, said police only wrote up the driver for a single charge of failure to yield before letting him go.
The driver claimed he did not know that he could not turn left out of Brooklyn Hospital, but it is clear that there is a "No left turn" sign as well as no white-painted left turn arrow on the pavement.
Police did not respond to the witness's concern that this driver had been operating his vehicle without a plate — or that he has a history of doing that after receiving a camera-issued speeding ticket in July 2022.
"I was completely unprepared for how the officer smoothed over the missing license plate, which is from Florida, even though the driver said to me that he lives right down the street," the witness said. "I asked the officer if he would get a summons for driving without a plate, and the cop said, 'He had a plate.'"
The NYPD press office declined to provide any details.
DeKalb Avenue, with its painted bike lane and high speed drivers, is a dangerous roadway for cyclists. Last year, there were 36 reported crashes on just the 0.6 miles west of Vanderbilt Avenue, injuring 13 cyclists and two pedestrians, according to city stats.
It's not the first time that officers of the 88th Precinct have shown a contempt for anyone outside of a car. Not only have the cops there stolen playground space from neighborhood residents to park their cars, they've also repeatedly blocked the DeKalb bike lane and the Jay Street bike lane, they've ignored 311 complaints about road conditions that negatively affect cyclists, they swiped bikes from protesters, and one cop even told a cyclist to "go back where you came from" when the cyclist objected to the officer's illegal parking.
