Nor were there any injuries.

Except, perhaps, to the city's hard-earned low-tolerance-for-crime reputation.

 

An auto show isn't a typical exposition in terms of clientele, but a Crips-Bloods dustup at the city's chief convention center can hardly be good for the trade-show business.

 

Word does get around, after all.

 

To say nothing of prospects for any new developments — like the West Side stadium or expanding the Javits itself.

Gangs at the Javits

 

 March 29, 2005 -- Guess who showed up at the Javits Center's New York International Auto Show last weekend, causing a ruckus that had car buffs pressing the pedal to the metal for the exits?

 

The Crips and the Bloods.

 

About 80 of them, eyeballing the sports cars and pickups. (One armor-plated SUV, boasting "urban sanctuary," seemed particularly appropriate.)

 

As might be expected, a fight broke out — though, thank goodness for small favors, no gunfire was reported.

Equally worrisome is the fact that gang members dared to take their squabbles to Javits in the first place.

 

Sure, everyone knows that crime in general has nosedived in recent years, hitting levels not seen since the 1960s.

 

But if Sunday's disturbance, in which gang members began shoving state troopers (who arrested three of them), was anything but an isolated incident, New Yorkers can just forget about the stadium — and any other large investment.

 

Because an explosion of crime — especially gangs settling their differences in the middle of large public events — will send investors scurrying.

 

As it is, one official says the car show has become an Easter tradition for gang members. And just this month, three students were stabbed in gang turbulence at Columbus High School in The Bronx.

 

So whoever at the NYPD is in charge of controlling gangs — ultimately, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg — had better take a hard look at this situation pronto.

 

Then again, a solution should not be hard to come by. The success in Brooklyn's 75th Precinct points the way.

 

It's called political will.

 

Once upon a time, the 75th was known as "the Killing Fields" and the "murder capital of America."

 

But a targeted response — flooding the area with 100 extra cops, dividing the precinct into three zones and providing extra supervision — led to a 20 percent drop in major crimes this year.

 

Since 1993, crime overall has fallen some 72 percent; murders are down 79 percent from the 126 slayings that year.

 

Kelly credits "accountability" and close monitoring of criminal activity in the area for the

recent success.

 

That's not to say the exact same tactics will work equally well against gangs.

 

But what won't work is ignoring a potential scourge — until it's too late.

 

It's time for Kelly & Co. to move.