Thursday’s Headlines: Police Practices Under the Microscope Edition

The rampage was bad enough. What about the police chase?

The wife of a man put in a coma by U-Haul driver Weng Sor is already asking tough questions of the NYPD, whose officers chased the killer motorist for 30 minutes including on sidewalks before bringing him to a halt.

“Why did this high-speed chase go on for so long?” the bereaved woman’s attorney told Gothamist, citing video footage of the chase showing a police cruiser follow Sur onto the sidewalk. “At no point in time is a police cruiser supposed to be driving down a sidewalk in a business district in the middle of the day where people could easily be run down.”

It’s a legitimate question. But so is how the NYPD should respond when someone is in the act of using a fast-moving vehicle to injure and kill. Nadjet Tchenar, the wife of Mohammed Zakaria Salah Rakchi, certainly has a legitimate beef. But the NYPD has its own take, arguing in its patrol guide that a pursuit should end only when the risks to the public “outweigh the danger to the community if suspect is not immediately apprehended.”

Lots to discuss. Until then, here’s the day’s news roundup:

• New York City saw a 61-percent spike in NYPD pedestrian stops last year, just 2 percent of which resulted in arrests. The New York Civil Liberties Union warned NYPD is “going back to a regime where it’s engaging in very aggressive stop and frisk.” (Bloomberg)
• So here’s the problem with tying important public infrastructure improvements to the whims of a developer. (NY Times)
• From the assignment desk: On Thursday, Chik-fil-A will open “The Brake Room,” a place for delivery workers to hang out. It’s a bid to address neighborhood concerns about clogged up sidewalks. (Gothamist, The City)
• Wow, the Daily News covered that epic Valentine’s Day massacre of a delivery worker recharging hub with an equally epic report. And we thought we had that story all to ourselves.
• News outlets including Streetsblog reported on Mayor Adams’s tin cup trip to testify in Albany on Wednesday — and the governor’s response. (Gothamist, NY Times)
• A group of Queens pols including Rep. Grace Meng and Borough President Donovan Richards want the MTA to reopen to Elmhurst LIRR stop, which closed way back in 1960. (Patch)
• Our editor was on NY1 talking about parking. The outlet tweeted a tiny bit, but we also pirated a copy here:

• Curbed’s Alissa Walker weighed in on the emergence of the “Macho EV genre” of automobile and car ahead, calling the gargantuan battery-powered monstrosities “the worst possible future for electrification.” It’s time for President Biden to stop shilling for the car industry.
• James Dolan let Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie drop the ceremonial puck at a Rangers game last week, as the state Legislature mulls whether to extend Madison Square Garden’s tax breaks. (NY Post)
• Here’s a big deal for people who do that F to the 2 transfer under 14th Street. (amNY)
• Here’s how they treat mothers with strollers, people in wheelchairs and the elderly in Bay Ridge:

— with David Meyer