The NYPD has arrested several bicycling teens on Staten Island after complaints of reckless bike riding surfaced on social media.

The arrests were first reported Tuesday by SiLive, which picked up several tweets from the 122nd Precinct announcing the crackdown. From the looks of photos posted by the precinct, at least four bikes were also confiscated.

Great job to our NCOs for making 2 arrests for Reckless bicycle riding in #NewDorp just now! #BicycleSafety #NCO #122Pct pic.twitter.com/DFk0euD0J2 — NYPD 122nd Precinct (@NYPD122Pct) February 21, 2017

Arrests and confiscations from New Dorp & Midland Beach areas. Reckless riding is illegal! pic.twitter.com/2fHQMAQCaE — NYPD 122nd Precinct (@NYPD122Pct) February 21, 2017

On Sunday, a group of teens on bicycles gathered on Hylan Boulevard in Dongan Hills to pop wheelies and generally challenge motorists' assumed dominance of city streets. The group apparently took up multiple lanes of traffic and blocked the bus lane. According to SiLive, this came on the heels of an incident the previous week in which teens rode their bikes out into moving traffic several times, in an apparent attempt to freak out drivers.

SiLive reported that photos of the teens appeared on a number of Staten Island Facebook groups, setting off a fury of angry comments about the rebellious kids.

The conversation spilled over to SiLive posts about the teens and the subsequent arrests, as well as other public posts about the subject. A number of the comments expressed concern for the safety of the cyclists, as well as potentially frightened or startled drivers. Many commenters, though, were just angry at the kids, and demanded police take immediate action.

Some choice comments:

"I hope those two kids in Tottenville get arrested next. Constantly doing wheelies in front of cars to the point of almost hitting them on Amboy Road, near the library." "Great Job, now if you can catch all those reckless fools it would make it better!! They were out at 11:30pm last nite riding foolishly and yelling on my block and along Leverett Ave....I've had personal encounters with them and this isn't anything new...from last summer on this has been going on, extremely unsafe the way they challenge drivers and try to go into the cars too...PLEASE GET THEM ALL!" "PLEASE GO TO VILLIAGE GREENS SHOPPING CENTER... THE KIDS ARE SO BAD... I can sit there for 10 mins and almost witness 10 accidents within that time because of them" "I would have no problem running them over" "Are we wrong if we hit these punks ?"

But some locals questioned the wisdom of dedicating law enforcement resources to pursuing teenagers messing around on their bikes, particularly in a borough in the grip of a devastating opioid epidemic that claimed seven lives in January alone.

I have an honest policy question about the wisdom of confiscating bicycles in a borough where bored teens turn to opioids in high numbers — Jillian Jorgensen (@Jill_Jorgensen) February 22, 2017

And Facebook comments:

I agree that it's not safe at all what they are doing, but you got to look at it at a different aspect at least they're not sitting in Dead End Street shooting needles in their arms" "Busting the big time criminals! What a joke..."

This is currently the pinned tweet for the 122nd Precinct:

‼️Reckless riding of bicycles, & interfering with traffic is DANGEROUS & ILLEGAL.Bikes WILL be confiscated! #NoSwarming #RideSafely‼️ — NYPD 122nd Precinct (@NYPD122Pct) February 21, 2017

In January, the 122nd Precinct recorded more than 1,300 moving violations for drivers, including 239 for speeding, 84 for failure to give the right of way to pedestrians, and 82 for using a cell phone behind the wheel. By comparison, the previous month, which is the most recent for which data is available, there were just 17 arrests for reckless driving in the precinct. Fifteen were for driving under the influence, two for leaving the scene of an accident.