Harbor robbery

Step out of the South Ferry or Bowling Green subway station and you’ll be asked by a swarm of ticket hawkers: “Are you going to the Statue of Liberty?” They aren’t selling passage to the actual monument. The hawkers are peddling pricey tickets for boat or bus or helicopter rides, none of which actually go to either Liberty or Ellis Island.

It’s time to once and for all swat the pests, who prey on and rip off out-of-their-element tourists and take money away from the one legitimate Statue ferry service.

Only Statue Cruises, the authorized concessionaire of the National Park Service, transports people to and from the Statue of Liberty monument and Ellis Island. And Statue Cruises doesn’t use pushy ticket hawkers, but sells in advance on the computer and at Castle Clinton.

Ferries are free to sell rides on boats that go past Liberty and Ellis Island — as long as they’re being honest. They’re not.

And deception is only the half of it; most of the hawkers are illegally selling in a city park (in this case, Battery Park). Only Parks Department franchisees and concessionaires, from hot dog vendors to merry-go-rounds, can do that.

As the adjacent column by the chief operating officer of Statue Cruises makes clear, these illegal and off-the-books hawkers are more than a scourge; they’re a threat to his legitimate, tax-paying business. And a problem for the monument itself, since a piece of every ticket sold goes to support the statue.

Though the city has known of the problem for years, it’s done next to nothing. Now’s the time to put signs in several languages directing tourists to the one and only Liberty boat.

Then, assign enough police officers to keep the hawkers away. When cops descend, they scatter.

The Statue of Liberty may be New York City’s single most powerful symbol. It shouldn’t stand for a monumental ripoff.