Don’t know about you, but I’m ashamed as all hell – it’s one thing to be irritated by hordes of foreign tourists swarming and storming the city, but it’s a pig in an entirely diff’rent poke to sit around and hear about the indecency in Central Park on the day of the Puerto Rican parade.

Everybody loves a parade, no? Well, apparently. So much so, that participants and other random goof-offs saw fit to shred the clothes off a honeymooning French woman while her husband was held down, made to watch.

Been to the park lately on a Sunday afternoon?

What I want to know is, what the fuck is going on? Where were the streams of rollerbladers, runners, picnickers, general relaxation seekers – what the hell happened, that this was able to take place?

Or hows about the assault at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Central Park South? Hell, it’s the dirty 80s all over again.

Once again, of course, I was out of town for the weekend, in California. I sat there, in San Diego, missing home, missing a Sunday in the park. These days, I’ve been fighting the urge to move out to the Golden State.

I know you, the reader don’t give a rats ass whether or not I’m tired of New York, and I’m just one in a long line of New Yorkers that eventually grows weary of the chaos. Me, it’s not taking too long – I’ve lived in the city a little less than two years.

It just rips me to pieces to sit here and read of anarchistic behavior in broad daylight, right here in the middle of this great city. It drives me crazy to see the cops cop-out and now demonstrate that in the light of all the tragedies over the past two years, we feel the need to return to the old days, to turn a blind eye, and make bland excuses for not jumping in and taking care of business.

Why were there no cops at the corner of Central Park South and Sixth Avenue? Why were there stabbings on Madison Avenue? These things do happen, but why?

Do you know what it’s time for? It’s time to stop the ridiculousness and see that without the police having their freedom to police, we’re going right back to Dinkins-ville. Next, they won’t be assaulting, they’ll be shooting.

Why, oh, why, can’t we remember that under the reign of terror, the Dinkins administration, how many more civilians were killed by cops, how high the crime was, and that the number of cop-on-civilian accidents or murders (call it what you will, I’m no cop-lover) has decreased in a major way since the rule of Adolf Giuliani?

It’s time for us to stop bitching, and to remember that we’ve not got that much time left, before Rudy’s out of office, and we’ve got some incompetent that lets things slides and would rather be PC than save lives.

This is an enormous city. There are many forces at work here. There are many people to keep happy. There are many groups, colors, shapes, cultures, all wonderful, all equally important to the life of this city.

Nobody wins, when the killings and the random mayhem begin again. We’ve already had three hundred murders this year. Sunday, a potentially racial scuffle resulted in some serious beatings and stabbings on the Coney Island boardwalk. We need to care about this too.

Because anytime there’s violence, it hurts us all – every time we forget to be outraged, we slip just a little further back towards 1991.

It’s almost the ten-year anniversary since the doldrums. Let’s not revisit. I beg you.

Email: davidr@lifeingotham.com

Next Update: 30 June