It baffles me that New Yorkers just bend over and take that stuff.

In most places, when an identifiable group of people, (e.g. city government employees) is such a bunch of jerks to everyone they would normally be abused right back until they stop being jerks.

Imagine if the government of Detroit acted that way. The inspector would come out to find their car on blocks three days a week and nobody would admit to having seen anything.