With entirely justifiable pride, the police commissioner and the Manhattan district attorney held a news conference in July to announce that a cast of many, many good guys had broken up a gang of motorcycle thieves who, it was believed, were so voracious that they had been responsible for most thefts of cool bikes in New York City during the preceding year.

The crooks had worked like conjurers, the authorities said, snatching the motorcycles off the street and loading them into vans within seconds.

Now, the custom on such occasions is for all the people who worked hard on a case — including investigators from city, state and federal agencies — to line up alongside their bosses on the podium and do a standing lap of honor around the contraband, usually piles of money or bricks of dope or stacks of assault weapons.

As it happened, the charges, in addition to motorcycle stealing, included illegal gun trafficking, so there was some nasty hardware on the table. But this was not just another opportunity to take a picture of seized guns.