The scourge is even worse than you thought

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In the latest evidence of the city’s rapidly declining quality of life, the open-air prostitution in Queens The Post reported appears to be hitting other neighborhoods, too — with efforts by Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD so far seeming to have little effect.

Last month, The Post cited a thriving illicit sex market in Corona, Queens; now, another report finds the virus has spread to East New York, Brooklyn, where hookers strut their stuff along Sheffield Avenue hawking early-morning sex.

Landlords can’t even get rid of the brothel operators in court.

In the bad old days, crooked cops were bribed to look the other way.

Today, legislators have watered down the laws and district attorneys won’t prosecute.

Sonia Ossorio, executive director of the National Organization of Women/NYC (a progressive!), says cops are not “incentivized to enforce anything because it won’t be prosecuted” by lenient district attorneys.

It’s not only DAs: Progressive lawmakers’ outrageous tolerance for disorder has fueled everything from fare evasion to public urination to shoplifting, and now prostitution, throughout the city.

Responding to The Post’s report on Queens’ so-called “Market of Sweethearts,” Adams claimed City Hall was “putting in place an operation to deal with the sex workers,” but offered no details.

He acknowledged that “sex work is not a victimless crime” and expressed his opposition to legalization.

Meanwhile, though, even landlords can’t do much about the scourge: Inchul Chang, for example, has desperately tried to get the courts to help him oust brothel operators, with little success.

Chang’s been documenting the activity in his building for months.

But despite photos and video evidence, a Queens judge permitted one of the operators to remain in business while awaiting trial.

Expect law enforcement’s game of whack-of-mole to continue apace until Albany bolsters laws cracking down on prostitution, sex trafficking and johns.

Meanwhile, perhaps Adams and the NYPD should take Bob McManus’ advice and reactivate vice squads or at least set up a taskforce targeting the brothel owners and assisting landlords to rid their buildings of them.

The rapid return to the bad old days needs to be stopped — before it’s too late.

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