Those NYPD Squad Car Long-Lined Patrols...and a complaint from a blog a couple of years ago

This is another one of those Only-in-New York phenomena that everybody sees and just ignores although sometimes it gets grotesque...

You will be walking along a street or avenue, such as I was here on East 34th Street, and suddenly you will see this very ceremonial parade of squad cars that sometimes goes on and on and is sometimes noisier than others.

It is obvious that this is one of those events that are "For the Needs of the Department" but which remains pretty much sub rosa, no matter how insanely long the line of squad cars may be as it does its own version of "Ghost Riders in the Sky" so to speak.. or "Ghost Cruisers on East 34th Street"--

Found one complaint from a local blog (Streetsblog) from a couple of years back about one of the hassles associated with this sort of thing, which I repeat here

Friday, March 12, 2010 38 Comments

Eyes on the Street: NYPD Chivalry Is Dead on 34th Street

by Noah Kazis

The officers who parked here apparently aren't the type to help old ladies cross the street. Photo: ddartley/Flickr

Thanks to tipster ddartley for the latest chapter in NYPD's ongoing mistreatment of bus riders on 34th Street. Yesterday, eight cruisers from northern Queens (precincts 110, 111, 112, 114 and 115) sat parked in the bus lane between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. During evening rush hour. You know, we're starting to think there may be a pattern here. 

This time, the police stepped up their game, blocking the bus stop itself and forcing elderly passengers to disembark in the middle of the street. Since shame can't keep police from inconveniencing bus passengers, maybe a physically separated busway on 34th will do the trick.
More pics after the jump.

Eight squad cars lined up in front of Macy's...

...forcing buses to travel in rush hour traffic. Photos: ddartley/Flickr

Noah Kazis joined Streetsblog as a New York City reporter at the start of 2010. When he was a kid, he collected subway paraphernalia in a Vignelli-map shoebox.