How the philosophy of "broken windows" works. The left always hoping that defining deviancy down you can appease those of a criminal mindset.

Cops find stolen gun during ‘quality of life’ stop

A Brooklyn man was busted for biking on the sidewalk — one of the “quality of life” offenses the City Council wants to decriminalize — and cops found he had a stolen, loaded handgun, police said Wednesday.

Leonard Roberts, 45, was spotted by two patrol cops as he illegally pedaled near the Marlboro Houses in Gravesend around 7:35 p.m. Saturday. He was riding so fast that pedestrians had to jump out of the way, and the officers used their siren to try to get his attention.

But Roberts — who has 18 prior arrests and once served 8½ years in prison for armed robbery — ignored the cops and rode into the housing complex, police said.

He finally stopped outside 2800 86th St., and cops used a new, NYPD-issued smartphone to run his name. The search revealed an open arrest warrant for failing to answer a Midtown Tunnel toll-evasion ticket.

Modal Trigger

Photo: David McGlynn

The officers searched Roberts’ backpack and found a stolen, .380-caliber Baikal pistol with three rounds in the magazine. He also had a small amount of pot stashed in one of his pockets, cops said.

“He’s a perfect example of how you can’t and shouldn’t discard the broken-windows theory,” said a police source.

“Here we have a silly offense of riding a bike on a sidewalk, and we got a gun off the street that could have been used to kill somebody. Think about that.”

Biking on the sidewalk is one of many low-level offenses that City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito wants to decriminalize and turn into a civil offense punishable simply with a ticket.

The other crimes in her sights include fare-beating, public urination and loitering in parks after hours.

When asked if the bike-riding gunman makes the speaker re-think her position, her spokesman Eric Koch said: “The council is conducting a comprehensive and careful review of proposals that will help continue to keep crime low and New Yorkers safe while also creating a more fair and just city for all New Yorkers.”

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton has warned that the proposal would bring crime “roaring back” to the bad old days of the 1970s and ’80s — and Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that he’s “absolutely united” with his top cop.

“What we’re doing now is what we believe in. We believe in quality-of-life enforcement,” Hizzoner said.

City Comptroller Scott Stringer said he also opposes much of Mark-Viverito’s plan.

“Having grown up in this city during the ’70s and ’80s, I am not in favor of people urinating in the street, jumping turnstiles or creating dangerous situations by being drunk,” Stringer said.

Stringer also recalled how, during the bad old days, “When we had 2,000 murders a year, the train that I rode every day, the A train, was a rolling crime scene.”

“People were afraid to go out at night,” he said.

“I think we should proceed with caution.”

Mark-Viverito’s proposal to decriminalize turnstile-jumping — which was blasted Monday by MTA board members and the head of the NYPD’s Transit Bureau — would require a change in state law.