Esteemed members of Suffolk County Police’s Street Takeover Task Force further lived up to the back of their baseball cards this past weekend.
A 2015 BMW fled from a car meet in Hauppauge on Saturday night, March 15. This “sideshow” that included reckless theatrics carried out by the usual subjects drew the justified ire of officers who attempted to pull over the speeding BMW as it sped away—lights off and the driver’s blatant disregard for his fellow man mightily apparent.
On its tail long enough to know what to search for, a task force officer stopped the same vehicle traveling northbound on William Floyd Parkway in Shirley the very next night at approximately 11:15 p.m.
The officer pulled over the vehicle, and promptly administered multiple citations to its driver: Clyde Jean Baptise, 23, of Mastic Beach.
Baptiste’s BMW was impounded as evidence of unlawful fleeing, according to authorities, though it is still unclear whether Baptise was operating the vehicle the previous night.
This is an ongoing story with evergreen relevance, given the local surge of self-proclaimed “road warriors” of late.
After one too many instances of emergency response teams blocked off from aiding injured individuals, District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney implemented the aforementioned task force in the fall to instant results, though this particular crime industry has proven rather tough to eradicate altogether.
“Coordinated chaos” has been successfully snuffed out by local law enforcement countless times in the past. Wild drivers with wilder intentions posting coded messages over social media, assuming they hold free rein in plain sight online and out in the open.
However, if constant news reports of the Street Takeover Task Force’s weekly victories are any indication, their days wreaking havoc and running rampant across Suffolk County and beyond just may be numbered yet.