The Big Apple is getting so dangerous that now even the bad guys want cops to protect them!
A man who was slashed on a Manhattan subway platform turned out to be an ex-con who was paroled last year for a hate-crime attack on a Jewish woman and her mom, law-enforcement sources told The Post on Wednesday.
And, in a stunning interview, Dimitrios Zias, 44, said it’s about time that the city started cracking down on its criminals.
“I feel like a lot of these guys, they feel like they are not going to be held accountable and they just feel like they can go out to harass people or attack them,” he told The Post.
“They need to be more strict on crime so people will think twice about, you know, about randomly stabbing people, harassing people.”
Zias added: “It has gotten out of hand. The only thing they can do is basically have more police officers.”
On Tuesday, Zias was slashed on the side of his neck by a man who used a pocket knife to attack him during an argument that escalated into violence around 4 p.m. on an L train platform in Union Square, according to the NYPD.
The unidentified assailant escaped in a subway car afterward, cops said.
The incident — which came amid a recent rash of underground knifings — took place a little more than a month after Zias finished serving parole for an unprovoked attack on a 37-year-old woman as she walked with her mother in Queens.
The two women were headed home from the subway around 2 p.m. on Sept. 13, 2017, when Zias apparently mistook them for Muslims and approached from behind near Queens Boulevard and 67th Avenue, police said.
Zias told the younger woman, “Get out of my country, you dirty Muslim!” before spitting in her face and punching her several times, according to police.
When the victim’s 57-year-old mom intervened, Zias grabbed her hair and punched her several times, police said.
Zias was arrested a short time later.
He pleaded guilty the following year to third-degree assault as a hate crime and was sentenced to 1-1/2 to 3 years in prison, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
Zias was released on parole from the medium-security Woodbourne Correctional Facility in Sullivan County in June 2020, according to online prison records. His parole expired in early April, the records show.
He also has a prior conviction for taking photos while aiming his cellphone under a woman’s skirt inside the Uniqlo store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue in 2015.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of unlawful surveillance in that case, according to prison records, and was apparently on probation when he got busted for the Queens attack.
During his interview with The Post, Zias said he served in the military and used his training to remain calm and cover his wound with his face mask following Tuesday’s slashing.
He also estimated that he “lost maybe a pint of blood” while saying it only took three stitches to close his wound — which he claims not to have noticed until horrified onlookers told him he was bleeding.
Zias claimed to have been heading home from his job as an accountant at the time, even while admitting that he lives with his mom in Astoria.
Online state records don’t show him licensed as an accountant, but Zias said he practices privately because of his felony conviction.
In a follow-up interview Wednesday night, after The Post learned of Zias’ criminal history, he expressed remorse for his past actions and said he deserves justice.
“I paid my debt to society. I took full responsibility for what I did. I’m not the same person today that I was when I committed the crime,” Zias said.
“But in this case, I am the victim. This is attempted murder. He stabbed me in the neck. He tried to kill me. He should be held accountable for what he did just as how I was held accountable for what I did.”
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