Police have crushed about 70 confiscated motorcycles to send a message to what New York City's top cop calls "nitwits" who illegally ride the vehicles.
Commissioner William Bratton said the department has been cracking down on unlicensed drivers who operate ATVs, mini-bikes and motorcycles without helmets. So far this year, more than 679 bikes have been confiscated and dozens of drivers arrested on charges like reckless endangerment.
On Tuesday along the Brooklyn waterfront, bulldozers crawled back and forth over the bikes, flattening them with metallic clatters and creaks.
Bratton says he wants to show the consequences to, in his words, the "nitwits and knuckleheads who insist on operating these vehicles on the streets."
He says they create "extraordinary dangers" for themselves and the public.
A video of Tuesday's event was posted on The City of New York Government's Facebook page.
