MANHATTAN — Cops have confiscate more than 1,440 illegal motorcycles, dirt bikes and quads and issued more than 5000 summonses in a citywide crackdown on nuisance bikers in 2013, the NYPD said.
Police arrested 437 motorcyclists — many for reckless endangerment or reckless driving — in 25 different law enforcement programs to curb dangerous and illegal riders, cops said.
The effort, in part, is a reaction to complaints from residents in Harlem who have complained that summer months bring the whine of bike engines revving up and down the streets.
Police have circulated flyers in the 32nd Precinct encouraging people to come forward, anonymously, and let cops know where illegal cycles are stored.
"The unsafe, improper and reckless use of these motorbikes puts the community in danger," an NYPD poster beckons. "Let's come together as a community and do something about it."
Last Sunday, a group of bikers who had gathered together for an annual rally got into a confrontation with a man and his family driving up the Henry Hudson Parkway in an SUV. The driver, Alexian Lien, 33, felt threatened by the motorcyclists and struck two men with his Range Rover as he fled in fear, his wife Rosalyn Ng said Thursday.
Edwin Mieses, 32, who also goes by the nickname Jay Meez, remains in critical condition after the crash.
Christopher Cruz, 28, was arrested and charge for unlawful imprisonment and reckless driving for stopping short in front of Lien's SUV and causing an accident, prosecutors said.
Lien was chased to West 178th Street were he was pulled from his Range Rover and beaten, according to police.
Cops said that 57 motorcycles were confiscated on the day of the Sunday rally.
