NYPD trashes hundreds of bikes for Obama visit

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Permalink Reply by Amber K on April 22, 2010 at 1:25pm

Wow, that really sucks!

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on April 22, 2010 at 1:31pm

Wow, that si bogus as hell.

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Doom on April 22, 2010 at 3:38pm

Well to be fair anyone who leaves their bike locked up on Houston St. is just asking for someone to defeat the lock.

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Permalink Reply by Barry Niel Stuart on April 22, 2010 at 3:42pm

When the police seize a bike just for being in New York City, I can see why Kryptonite might be reluctant to guarantee its locks in New York City, even if one is the New York Lock. You're better off borrowing some cheap trashmo there rather than risking your own bike. At least you're not out much if it disappears. Better yet, if the thief is a NYPD officer, he ought to go upstate to apprentice with Serotta.

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Permalink Reply by Adam "Cezar" Jenkins on April 22, 2010 at 4:22pm

Someone gonna get sued.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Perz on April 22, 2010 at 4:43pm

Adam "Cezar" Jenkins said:

Someone gonna get sued.

What sucks most is that while somebody might possibly sue, nobody will win. Taking on just about any government entity in cases like this tends to be fruitless. I'm not at all versed in NY asset forfeiture laws but suspect they're rather onerous. These bikes will end up being sold at auction.

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Doom on April 22, 2010 at 5:04pm

I don't know how a lawsuit will go, but things might get righted. The building on your right in the photo is, I believe, NYU housing and the south edge of Houston over there has a lot of pensioners on rent control. NYPD does a lot of dumb shit but jacking beaters from professors and little old Italian ladies for such obviously stupid reasons isn't going to go over well, especially if Transportation Alternatives can drum up a bit of publicity over this. Doesn't hurt that NYU essentially owns the Village; if anyone over there gets pissed off enough NYPD will have to do something about it, the same way CPD would figure something out if U of C got steamed enough about some idiot cops breaking every lock on 57th St. and piling the bikes up in a truck.

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Permalink Reply by heather s on April 23, 2010 at 11:00pm

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/bike-stolen-check-the-...

The cops say they posted 'no parking' signs on Tuesday... as if any cyclist would check or care about that. Streetsblog commenters pointed out that the cops won't know whose bike belongs to whom when the owners go to claim them. It would be easy for any unscrupulous cyclist (or non-cyclist for that matter, who just wants to pick up a free bike and sell it on Craigslist) to go to the police station and leave with someone else's nice bike. Plus, the average New Yorker's lock likely cost upwards of $80, more than some bikes are worth. And the obvious fact that it's not good for 30+ bikes to be tossed together into a flatbed truck.
When cars are moved off of a parade route or movie shoot, they're moved a couple blocks away--mad annoying since there's no way of knowing where your car has been moved to (this happened to my sister a while back). But it's not likely that the owner would incur $100 worth of damage, and if they did, there would be some recourse with the city because cars are considered valuable property, and bikes just aren't.

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