As protests go, this one was pretty run-of-the-mill: maybe 300 bicycle food-delivery guys crowding loudly into City Hall Park Thursday to demand more police protection. They say their bikes are being stolen, often at gunpoint, and the NYPD isn’t doing much about it.
The claim has a familiar ring to it. There’s a worrisome fraying of Gotham’s social fabric underway, and blame lies squarely with Bill de Blasio’s kinder, gentler approach to public safety.
Sure, the coronavirus, a deteriorating economy and New York’s steadily worsening gun-violence command a lot of attention. At least nine people were shot, one fatally, between Tuesday and late Thursday, with the weekend looming. And that’s not really news any longer, is it?
So where do swiped bikes register compared to bloody sidewalks? Right?
But if you need your bike to earn your living, meager as it may be, losing it to a pistol-waving thug is a very big deal indeed.
nypost.com/2020/10/16/all-new-yorkers-paying-growing-price-for-de-blasios-go-soft-orders-to-nypd/