NYPD Caught on Video Appearing to Try to Hit Man on A Scooter With Police SUV
The NYPD is one of the most famous police departments in the country. The force is widely known as being one of the largest police forces in the world. As such, they have a long and winding reputation, from 9/11 heroes to black-bag boys who snatched American Citizens, detaining them illegally during the protests of 2020. The point is the NYPD has a varied cast of characters. One of those characters was recently caught on film appearing to try and hit a scooter driving with a police SUV.
NYPD Police SUV tried to hit scooter driver
The video is outright alarming. The Police Ford Explorer is seen driving down what appears to be the Long Island Expressway heading West toward Manhattan when a moped driver rides along in the emergency lane/shoulder. While riding here is illegal, the police car doesn’t attempt to make a stop; it seems to attempt to kill the rider.
The scooter looks to try and pass the officer on the shoulder when he cuts back to the road. At this point, without any emergency lights or sirens, the cop cuts in front of the scooter driver and crosses three lanes of a crowded highway to block the scooter from passing. The officer presses the scooter into the far shoulder and toward a barrier before the video ends. The alarming part is that the officer never once signals to the rider that he is trying to stop him or make an arrest action. It looks a lot more like road rage than police work.
Can the police run you off the road?
The truth is, our police force has pretty long-reaching powers. However, they are meant to use these powers only in the face of a real threat to the public. Using a PIT maneuver or running a driver off the road is a similar use of force to discharging a firearm. These things are potentially deadly forces and should only be used as a final means to stop someone from harming themselves or others. While the scooter driver’s ride was illegal, it’s probably going to be tough to make the argument that the illegal scooter maneuver was going to cause more damage than attempting to run him into the wall like a NASCAR race.
After the first violent attempt to crash, the rider failed, and the officer in the Ford Explorer squad car continued to swerve erratically on the crowded highway to seemingly hit the rider. Still, the officer has yet to turn on the lights or sirens. Eventually, the scooter rider takes an exit and evades the swerving officer.
It’s only fair to note that the events leading up to swervy ride are unknown at this time. The police officer could have had more information than we know. However, if lack of information still doesn’t justify the dangerous and erratic driving, that easily could have ended in serious injury to other innocent drivers sharing the highway with the impromptu police chase.
The NYPD go hard
For all the good the NYPD does, which is a lot, by the way, the organization is so large that there are bound to be some who step beyond the moral boundaries that allow police officers to keep us safe. This isn’t the video we’ve seen of the NYPD behaving in an unjust and unsafe manner.
The video is getting a lot of attention on Reddit. Many commenters expressed concern for the police officer’s erratic behavior. Some concede that not having a full picture of the situation here makes it hard to fully condemn the officer in question. However, if the rider were suspected of a more serious crime, the officer should have signaled for the rider to pull over. Granted, this could have happened before the filming, but then why are the officer’s lights and siren not on in the video?
According to a report by Streets Blog, the incident was brought to the attention of the NYPD, with a spokesperson responding by saying: “We are aware of the video, and it is under internal review.” We should all hope that a thorough investigation is done to get to the bottom of this, whatever the conclusion might be.
