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Robin Williams Sparked Police Crackdown That's No Joke, Says Cyclist

By DNAinfo Staff on April 23, 2011 12:02pm  | Updated on April 24, 2011 11:21am

Actor Robin Williams got a break from cops on his biking ticket, but now a  playwright is blaming him for an NYPD crackdown.
Actor Robin Williams got a break from cops on his biking ticket, but now a playwright is blaming him for an NYPD crackdown.
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Kevin Winter/Getty Images

By Tara Kyle

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN —Comic legend Robin Williams may have sparked a police crackdown that's not amusing city cyclists.

Williams, currently performing on Broadway in "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," was spared a $100 ticket for sidewalk cycling in March after being recognized by cops, the actor bragged on "The View."

But Upper West Side playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis is saying his let-off is no joke for other bikers, according to the New York Post.

Guirgis was given a $330 ticket for running a red light on West 72nd Street on Thursday.

"[The officer] told me that there's a clampdown because someone let Robin Williams out of a ticket on his bike the other night," Guirgis told New York Magazine.

"So they have to write everybody up."

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told the Post that, while Guirgis did receive a ticket, his claim about Williams is "an utter fabrication."

As bike lanes expand across the city, frustration with bikers is a common complaint at community meetings. Recently, police took heat for ticketing bikers in Central Park.

This year alone, police have issued hundreds of tickets to cyclists, according to the Post.

For his part, Williams told "The View's" hosts that he was shocked to be pulled over.

"No-one else was on the sidewalk… all of a sudden [I hear] 'bloop, bloop pull over!'" Williams said on the show. "I went, I'm on a bike — wow!"