If you were in organized crime, pigeons and rats, stool pigeons, and betraying rats would be synonymous. Unfortunately, they are still synonymous, even if you are just an ordinary citizen. In Ahearn Park, between Grand Street and East Broadway, two older women with shopping carts full of crumbs, old bread, seeds, and other foods spread out twenty-foot lines of food on the ground. The feed pigeons don’t eat in the daytime; the rats feast on at night. The pigeon population and the rat population have doubled. The renewed Ahearn Park is supposed to be an enduring oasis in the Lower East Side. But the benches are covered with bird poo, and the rats at night ruin it.

One day, I saw these women spreading out their garbage in the middle of the park. My neighbors sitting in the park said, “See, this is what they do every day about this time.” Since the 7^th precinct was just a block away, I walked over and spoke to the young cop with beautiful hair and an attitude at the desk. I told him the situation. He made a call on his cell phone, and by the time I walked back to the park, the cops were there talking to the two women.

I asked the two policemen, “Isn’t this a summons offense for throwing so much garbage in the street? They said, “We can’t give them a summons unless we see them doing it.” 
I answered, “Walk away to your patrol car across the street, and you will see them throwing the garbage. The cops left and were not seen again. The woman came back and dumped the trash on the floor. It is not against the law to feed the pigeons. It is against the law to dump garbage and feed the rats. I know the pigeons spread hepatitis, and the rats can spread all sorts of diseases. I went back to the precinct the following day. I received a cop’s stupid response.

“It’s New York, Whatayaexpect?