The latest bit of video documenting motorcyclists running amok in upper Manhattan comes from a YouTube account called WaHi Report (h/t Gothamist), and shows a group of bikers doing doughnuts and wheelies, and generally making a nuisance of themselves in front of an R.G. Ortiz funeral home. It’s the same neighborhood where members of a group of bikers (which included off-duty cops) attacked an SUV they’d been chasing in September, pulling the driver out and stomping on him in front of his wife and kid. The mayhem recorded on Sunday stayed nonviolent, but it still sounds pretty disruptive.
According to the video poster’s notes, rambunctious bikers plague the neighborhood: “Motorcycle gangs roam freely in upper Manhattan, particularly in Washington Heights, where the local police are unwilling or unable to intervene. The gangs close avenues and highways for long periods of time, setting off fireworks, damaging property (see 1:15), driving on the sidewalks, and attacking anyone who dares defy them.” Sounds like the summer’s motorcycle crackdown in the neighborhood did not yield the desired results.
Update: Animal New York spoke with someone at the funeral home, who said the bikers were showing support for a fellow rider, a club member who died at the age of 21. “The loud happenings were in tribute and according to her, didn’t last for more than a few minutes.” The YouTube poster had written that the wild riding lasted for 20 to 25 minutes.
