VIDEO: Cop Rams Citi Bike, Tells Rider It Was For His 'Safety'

EAST VILLAGE, NY — An NYPD officer rammed his cop car into a Citi Bike in an attempt to stop the rider for allegedly running a red light Friday evening, according to video of the aftermath.

East Villager Garvey Rich filmed the officer and Citi Bike rider arguing moments after the cop's car mangled the bike near Tompkins Square Park on Avenue A about 7 p.m., he said.

The video shows the officer explaining he tried to stop the cyclist for running two red lights with headphones on, saying he would use "whatever means necessary" to stop the cyclist. He called the cyclist's behavior "reckless activity."

The cop goes on to explain that he repeatedly tried to get the cyclist's attention and accuses the biker of ignoring his demands that he pull over.

"You acknowledged me but continued to keep going," the cop told the cyclist. "This is for your safety."

At this point the crowd that gathered around the two men broke into laughter.

While the officer claimed he used every tool he had — including his cop car's loud speaker — to get the cyclist's attention, Rich told Patch he didn't hear a thing.

"Usually, if you hear a real emergency situation ... you hear it. Especially if they say something over the loud speaker," Rich told Patch. "I definitely did not hear anything."

The incident was "pretty shocking," he added.

In a second video, the cyclist accuses the officer of having hit him with his cop car.

"He hit me and the bike with said vehicle," said the cyclist. "He's sitting inside the car, rolled up his window because he doesn't want to talk to me and I'm assuming he's writing a ticket."

The NYPD press office responded to the viral video on Twitter, backing up the officer's claim that the cyclist ran two red lights, was biking with headphones and failed to comply with a lawful order.

"When approached by cops, cyclist jumped the bike & it became wedged between the police vehicle and a parked vehicle," the NYPD's public information office wrote on Twitter.

The NYPD stated it "vigorously supports" Vision Zero and is implementing a bike safety plan, a three-week citywide blitz to ticket drivers for blocking bike lanes after a spike in cyclists' deaths in 2019. Fifteen cyclists have been killed in crashes so far this year.

The collision comes weeks after an NYPD vehicle in the Ninth Precinct hit an e-biker in May, Patch previously reported.

On May 29, cops hit a cyclist while rushing to the scene of a teen getting slashed in the face in the East Village. The cyclist, 36, was unable to stand up on his own and screamed in pain after the crash at St. Mark's Place and First Avenue.

Over the weekend, NYPD auxiliary police in Queens hit a pedestrian during a high-speed chase, the New York Post reported.

Though cops are in the midst of a three-week citywide initiative to make cycling safer in the city, cops themselves have been documented blocking bike lanes and using excessive force, cyclists say.

In April, cops confiscated bikes in Tompkins Square Park for not having bike bells and Union Square — a crackdown that was in response to a bike event that the NYPD said "advertised smoking marijuana," Gothamist reported.

Days after an East Village cyclist, 72, was killed in Midtown, police were ticketing cyclists in the area, and one witness saw an officer shove a man from his bike.