Mayor Bloomberg plucked a word from an inglorious period in New York City’s recent history — wilding — to describe Sunday night’s violent rampage through Midtown that left four people with gunshot wounds and 56 under arrest.
“Wilding,” of course, is a word that most New Yorkers thought had been permanently retired — at least as it applied to the five boroughs.
It’s the phenomenon of gang-related mayhem that left New Yorkers rightly convinced that police had lost control of the streets to the gangs and hoodlums.
As such, it was one of the many visible symbols — along with graffiti, porn palaces, filthy streets, failing schools and blighted neighborhoods — of a city in which far too many residents had simply given up hope.
The living nightmare of those days has been little more than a nagging memory for nearly two decades.
But what occurred Sunday night and into early Monday morning is a stark reminder — and a clear warning: New York could well backslide.
It follows the first real, sustained uptick in crime figures — shootings up 19 percent and murders up 22 percent over the same period last year — which even Bloomberg has conceded is “worrisome.”
Actually, said the mayor, the weekend violence was nothing new — it’s been a regular occurrence corresponding with the annual Javits Center Auto Show, and cops were ready as the mob began accosting pedestrians and storming businesses.
Aparently they weren’t ready enough.
It’s true, as Bloomberg said afterward, that police “can’t be everywhere.”
But it’s also hard for them to be anywhere — given the NYPD headcount is down a whopping 6,000 from its high.
Let’s be clear: It’s not enough to hector Albany to provide the cash to restore Bloomberg’s threatened reduction in the NYPD headcount.
There simply isn’t enough money to keep every interest whole.
So Bloomberg needs to establish budget priorities that mirror current imperatives — and keeping New Yorkers safe both from new-wave “wilders” and garden-variety gunsels must be right at the top of his list.
If that means more file clerks and Education Department paraprofessionals must go, tough.
It’s also critical that those arrested during the violence feel the full weight of the law.
A refusal to plea-bargain away charges that fit the crime, and the subsequent imposition of every sanction the law will allow, will send a message that’s apparently long overdue.
The idea that a spasm of street violence after the Javits car show is so acceptable that it’s considered a regular occurrence is beyond bizarre.
“We’re not going to tolerate it,” said Bloomberg yesterday.
Anymore, he might have added.
Let’s hope he really means it.