They’re putting their hooves down on horseplay.
A cavalry of mounted cops is going cowboy in a bid to corral the rowdy revelers who are wreaking havoc on Christopher Street in the West Village, cops said.
Drug peddlers and gangs roaming the downtown night spot have become such a nuisance that it’s left neighbors and business owners crying out for the pumped-up patrols.
“I don’t bring my kids out past 9 or 10 p.m. It’s not a peaceful place after that,” said Greenwich Village mom Laura Mady, 42. “It’s all concentrated on Christopher Street — drugs, prostitution.”
Police hope the horseback cops will act as a deterrent. Locals say they are a welcome addition. “This year is by far the worst. Our customers are afraid,” said Boots and Saddle bar owner Robert Ziegler.
“We have Bloods and Crips out here. It’s scary,” he said.
His watering hole has been hit hard by the flood of violent punks, he said, and business has dropped off by at least 25 percent.
Crime in the area has spiked, cops said. Officers in the Sixth Precinct have written more summonses for quality-of-life offenses like public urination and drinking. Those infractions rose 40 percent compared to the same period last year, data shows.
While overall crime in the area waned a bit — it’s down 3.2 percent overall — there has been a 27.9 percent increase in robbery arrests and a 14.3 percent spike in felony assault arrests, according to police data.
Neighbors hope clip-clopping cops will help, since they fear a repeat of the May 16 Dunkin’ Donuts rampage, in which 20 youths destroyed the java joint. The surge in crime was acknowledged by a high-ranking NYPD official at a recent community meeting, but he believed the horses would keep wild crowds in check.
“We will have more resources on Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue, [and] we will get results out of this.”
But revelers sniffed at the idea that they’d be run out of downtown. “We come here every weekend to party. Where else we gonna make trouble?” said 19-year-old Kirsten Fletcher of New Jersey.
“If they want us [to leave], they can kiss our asses.”
Additional reporting by John Doyle