Welcome Steps in Queens
Good for New York’s Finest: Following weeks of public outcry and one day after an exposé by The Post, the cops swooped in — two days in a row — on an illegal vendor’s paradise in Jackson Heights, Queens. It’s a darn good start.
“This will be a continuing process,” said Chief of Patrol John Chell. “It’s gonna take a while, but we owe it to the residents of Queens.” Indeed they do.
These law-breaking “vendors” aren’t hardworking, taxpaying small businessmen trying to improve their economic lot. They’re fences for the massive and ongoing retailtheft rings that plague every borough. One brazen thief was selling a full complement of power tools from Home Depot with the tags still attached.
To say nothing of the sex workers who along Roosevelt Avenue — many likely trafficked here via President Biden’s open borders and drawn by the absurd policies beloved by the city’s own lefty electeds.
Make no mistake, this raid was a victory for public safety. But thanks to pro-crime lefties in Albany and Gotham, it’s only going to be a temporary one, as witness the fact the cops had to come on two successive days.
“They’ll be back. No question,” said one frustrated resident. He’s right. As long as crooks are allowed to steal from stores without any real consequences, and vendors can set up shops on sidewalk blankets wherever they please, this will continue.
Empire State Democrats have signaled they love this disorder. Look at recent remarks from Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie pushing the absurd assertion that harsher punishment doesn’t deter crime (it does).
Word out of Albany is that the budget deal being cemented this week might include some of what Gov. Hochul sought to address retail theft — and even Heastie appears to have now publicly caved on the issue.
But the market’s emergence isn’t surprising given the overall anything-goes climate here that sees thugs let loose as soon as they’re caught for many other crimes.
As one law enforcement source put it, “Roosevelt Avenue is the microcosm — a perfect storm composed of lunatic legislation that prevents enforcement of laws and the subsequent punitive results.”
It’s proof, yet again, of how utterly disconnected “progressives” are from the public they allegedly serve.