Thought that this was Elmhurst Queens. We have lots of skunks in NYC, and not just in City Hall. When I lived in the Bronx, my neighbor was sprayed said critter when he stepped out of our building one day.
The cops and local elected personages are not fascist skunks. The trapping prohibition in this tree-lined, upper middle-class, completely built-up town is necessary because there's always the presence of sick sadists who take pleasure in trapping squirrels and rabbits....and neighbors' cats and doggies.
I lived in the village next door to Elmhurst for 20 years. Good folks reside there.
Leni