It’s outrageous that Saturday night’s 40-car “street takeover” in Queens devolved into arson and assaults on residents who dared intervene, but it’s also horrific if a 911 dispatcher told callers that the vehicular melee was a “quality of life” non-emergency, so they needed to call 311 .
As all New Yorkers know, 311 is where complaints go to die.
It took cops 45 minutes to reach the quiet Malba neighborhood, while a dozen thugs physically brutalized a local couple and others torched a private security car with a Molotov cocktail.
Street takeovers, or “sideshows,” are a nationwide trend — fueled by social media and movies like the Fast & Furious franchise — where bozos invade wide intersections with stolen whips and perform dangerous, rubber-burning “drift” maneuvers.
Instagram and TikTok are filled with videos of idiots peeling out, pulling “donuts” and losing control, knocking into spectators or smashing into lampposts.
Though common in car-friendly locales like Los Angeles or Detroit for years, this idiocy hasn’t been unknown in New York.
Neighborhoods across the city — usually less populated than leafy Malba — are all too familiar with the “meetups”: Intersections scorched with dozens of tire marks bear witness to the mayhem.
The NYPD has cracked down on illegal dirt-bike and unlicensed all-terrain-vehicle parades that swarm major avenues in intimidating shows of force; it now needs to get vigilant on these “meetups.”
City Councilwoman Vicki Paladino (R-Queens) has extracted an apology from the NYPD and a promise the local precinct will keep police cars on alert for more Malba madness; that’s a good start.
But this is a serious quality-of-life offense: Self-righteous hooligans invading neighborhoods for riotous criminal chaos.
If the NYPD can’t control the streets, it’s losing control of the city.

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