Dear Department of Public Safety,

The person driving this car:

Columbia Medical Center Public Safety Patrol car #4, 10/21/07, ~10:00am, Ft Washington Ave.

Was observed to do the following by THREE witnesses:

Accelerated aggressively past a moving bicycle (as if responding to an emergency), then braked suddenly and turned right across the bicycle's right of way, nearly running him over in the process. The bicycle had to both brake and take emergency evasive action, swerving to the right. The Public Safety car then sped all of 20 ft down the road and parked.

Reason for the urgent maneuver? He was going inside to use the bathroom. Clearly important enough to warrant the running over of a pesky bicycle.

When asked why he would speed around a bicycle and nearly run him over, only to pull into a parking spot 20 ft away, he responded that the bicycles were "all riding on the yellow and all out in the road".

I'm not quite clear on how he can cut RIGHT across someone's right of way while making a RIGHT turn if the bicycle in question is "on the yellow center line", but apparently Columbia teaches some kind of logic that just doesn't apply elsewhere.

Regardless, the young man (tall, thin, black), has a serious serious attitude problem. It's one thing to make a mistake... it's something else entirely to blame everyone else for the mistake and be aggressive about it.

This is NOT a person who should be trusted with ANY KIND OF POSITION OF AUTHORITY.

IF YOU CONTINUE TO EMPLOY HIM IN THIS CAPACITY, YOU PLACE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN AN INDEFENSIBLE POSITION creating EXTREME RISK for the University itself.

It is only a matter of time until his conduct results in a lawsuit (or worse) as a direct result of his belligerent, volatile and irresponsible behavior.

You should re-evaluate the mental state of this employee, and take corrective action immediately, most likely including dismissal.