Rihanna was in a real hurry to dinner Friday night in Paris -- not only did she get a police escort to the restaurant ... her car nearly ran over a crowd of pedestrians in the process.

You can see it all in the video -- Rihanna's police escort breezes through a crosswalk ... and several pedestrians try to cross the street behind it ... but Rihanna's car cuts them off. It's a really close call.

Thankfully, Rihanna made it to dinner in one piece. (FYI, the restaurant's called Farnesina.)

Now shut up and drive.