One has to wonder if our major cities aren't past the "interesting times" bit and nearing Snake Pliskin-style "Escape From New York" times.

On Thursday night in New York City, three men approached two teenage boys. The three men asked the teens if they spoke English. When the teens indicated they did not, the trio of men attacked them.

Officials say a trio of men approached the teens around 7:40 p.m. Thursday night, when one of the men asked if the teens spoke English. When the teens said they did not, they were attacked, according to police.

Police say they were responding to a 911 call for an assault in Lower Manhattan when they found a 17-year-old male with a stab wound to the chest and an 18-year-old male with a stab wound to the left arm.

Emergency medical services responded and transported both teens to the NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue location, according to officials.

There is no indication as to the immigration status of the two teens, nor is there likely to be any such indication from the city of New York or ABC News. But that's immaterial; the nature of this crime speaks of issues well beyond the status of two boys walking the streets of New York.

One of the teens is dead. The other is in the hospital.

The 17-year-old male, now identified by officials as Yeremi Colino, succumbed to his injuries and the 18-year-old male is in stable condition, the NYPD reports.

The surviving victim believed he was stabbed with a screwdriver, police said. A knife was recovered at the scene, according to police, who say they will test it for forensics.

The three suspects fled the stabbing on foot. They are described as being in their 20s with dark complexions.

The problems with the waves of illegal immigrants being dumped in our major cities — and in some smaller cities and towns as well — are causing plenty of residents to lash out at their elected representatives. 

Residents of Chicago, Illinois, recently sounded off on Democratic Mayor Brandon over the crisis of illegal immigration the Windy City has endured in recent years.  Chicago, like many other major cities in the United States, has faced a surge of illegal immigrants, straining resources and impacting local communities.  Calling out the mayor in a city council meeting, tax-paying American citizens remind Johnson that they pay his salary to represent them, not foreigners.

Speaking directly to the city council, one woman stated, “We are the ones who pay your salaries. Let me accentuate on that, but yet you want to overlook us like we don’t exist.”  Another man celebrated the imminent return of President-elect Donald Trump and his cabinet picks who vow to enact the deportation of illegal immigrants.

The times, they are a'changin'. Donald Trump is taking over in January, and there will be some serious changes to immigration and border policy. But will it be in time?

See Related: Border Patrol Chief 'Excited' About Incoming Trump Administration

Trump's Latest Homeland Security Picks Tell Us a Lot About What the New Admin's Priorities Will Be

This attack may well be reflective of increasing tensions in our cities. The influx of illegal immigrants is placing a serious strain on cities already beset with unaffordable housing, extensive Bidenville homeless enclaves, crime, and violence, with open-air drug markets in the parks and increasingly audacious moves by cartels and prison gangs from south of the border. The governments of some of these cities, as we see in Chicago, seem unable or unwilling to respond to their residents' complaints — and the residents are growing increasingly angry and frustrated. And who could blame them? They are seeing their homes threatened, the cities some of them have inhabited for generations are falling apart, and their elected leaders, for the most part, seem unable to take any constructive action.

And yet, strangely, these same leaders seem to keep getting elected.

Granted, nothing justifies this kind of unwarranted attack against two teenage boys. The perpetrators of this attack, who have committed murder, must be tracked down, arrested, tried, and jailed. But this may prove to be more than an isolated incident. If something isn't done about conditions in these cities, this may be a leading indicator. These problems may well lead to open violence in our cities; worse, the violence may be by ethnic group against ethnic group, which can be the most hateful and atrocious (in the original sense of the word) conflict of all.

Are our major cities beyond the point of no return? If the incoming Trump administration can get control of the Charlie Foxtrot on our southern border, it may buy us some time. But it's going to take a lot more than that to save some of our urban areas from chaos — and the clock's a-tickin'.