New York Newspapers Report NYPD Police Officers Were Riding With Pack Involved In SUV Altercation, Failed To Intervene Or Even Report Attack

Ronnie Schreiber
by Ronnie Schreiber

New York City newspapers are reporting that there were at least two and as many as five off-duty NYPD police officers among the motorcyclists riding with the pack that chased and beat Range Rover driver Alexian Lien after he rear-ended a sportbike rider who appears, in the videos of the incident, to have brake checked the SUV.


Lien drove away, hitting other motorcyclists, prompting the chase. The Daily News and the New York Post reported that an undercover officer participating in the ride observed the altercation but did not intervene and stop the beating for fear of losing his cover. He also did not call 911 to report the beating. ABC News reported that the detective works in narcotics enforcement. The newspapers’ sources say that the detective belongs to a motorcycle club called Front Line Soldiers whose membership includes other NYPD cops and that he was on the ride in a private capacity, not conducting an investigation at the time. While he did tell the NYPD that he was present, he only came forward after videos of the event started circulating, contacting superiors on Wednesday following the Sunday incident. News reports say that that the undercover detective has retained an attorney, though they don’t indicate if the lawyer was privately retained or hired by the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, the labor union representing NYPD officers. He is reportedly the subject of an internal affairs investigation.

The New York Post reported about the detective’s affiliation with the Front Line Soldiers M/C and the Daily News said that according to its sources in addition to the undercover narcotics officer and another off-duty cop, there were possibly two or three more police officers among the estimated 20 to 30 motorcyclists on the Henry Hudson Parkway when riders tried to slow traffic, apparently so they could perform stunts.

Lien’s SUV bumped one rider who slowed suddenly in front of Lien’s car and when Lien accelerated to escape the pack of riders he hit several, seriously injuring Edwin “Jay” Mieses, who has since retained celebrity lawyer Gloria Aldred. Several of the bikers chased the Liens’ car for four miles, eventually catching up to him in Washington Heights when Lien got caught in Manhattan traffic. The motorcyclists smashed the Range Rover’s windows, pulled Lien from the car and beat him severely as his wife and child watched.

The undercover NYPD detective and the possible presence of other NYPD officers on the ride and their failure to report or stop the beating are being investigated by the department’s Internal Affairs bureau. In addition to the failure to intervene or even report the incident, there is the additional matter of the officers participating in a mass ride that involved numerous traffic violations including stunting on public roads. After a similar ride a year ago snarled traffic, the NYPD had made efforts this year to prevent a mass gathering of motorcyclists in Times Square, said by some to be one reason why the pack of riders were on the Henry Hudson Pkwy at the time of the altercation.


Ronnie Schreiber
Ronnie Schreiber

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, the original 3D car site.

More by Ronnie Schreiber

Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 81 comments
  • LeMansteve LeMansteve on Oct 07, 2013

    The narcotics detective that was participating in a private capacity, did the rest of the non-cop riders know he was a detective? The article says other riders were also cops, but doesn't really say if the cops make their profession known to the group.

  • -Nate -Nate on Oct 07, 2013

    NYC's new motto :" Hey , at least we're not New jersey ! " . I imagine Short Hills is safer than The City is these days . And folks wonder why I moved away and now live in bucolic South Central Los Angeles =8-) . -Nate

  • TheMrFreeze That new Ferrari looks nice but other than that, nothing.And VW having to put an air-cooled Beetle in its display to try and make the ID.Buzz look cool makes this classic VW owner sad 😢
  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
Next