No Respect For The Lord

The Post reports that several Times Square-area businesses closed temporarily on Easter Sunday to observe Gang Initiation Day:

Police, unable to contain a Times Square street-gang invasion, advised several restaurants to close down early “for safety reasons” on Easter Sunday, The Post has learned.

A 24-hour McDonald’s on Seventh Avenue between 46th and 47th streets closed “from 8 o’clock at night to 1 o’clock in the morning,” manager Alex Donato told The Post.

“They [police] said, for security reasons, to close it down — cause there were too many gang members.”

A complement of 88 cops — including five on horseback — along with eight sergeants, three lieutenants, a captain and a deputy chief had been deployed to Times Square on April 16 to police an influx of approximately 40,000 pedestrians, including an Easter Parade of gang members, mostly from the notorious Bloods.

But despite the heightened police presence, cops warned at least three restaurants to close as hundreds of crimson-hued hoods swaggered by, police sources said.

. . .

At another Mickey D’s, on 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, management hired six private security guards for the Sunday-night shenanigans.

“We were much better prepared than last year” when the McDonald’s closed “all night,” said one employee.

They only shut down for 45 minutes this year at the cops’ suggestion, he said.

“Easter is gang-initiation day. I don’t know why — no respect for the lord, I guess,” the employee added.

“Easily over 200” gang members were strutting up and down Seventh Avenue and Broadway between West 42nd and West 50th streets until about 3 a.m., one police source said.