Insane South Brooklyn Raccoons Terrorizing People and Getting a Bad Rep?

Everybody digs a Brooklyn raccoon, right? Wrong. There's a heated discussion over at the Park Slope Forum about what pests they can be. A few people even say they have nasty Brooklyn raccoons that growl, charge and try to bite. (Insert Bensonhurst raccoon wisecrack here.) The original poster writes:

Ive been feeding this cat on my fire escape, and today i spotted what i thought was a rather large cat munching on cat food, and upon closer look, was a racoon!!!

I'm on the the third floor, with my kitchen window facing all of the backyards on my block.

The raccoon has been eating up the food all week and is bound to return, so is there a number or dept i can call to try to get rid of it? 311?

And there was this response, among the dozens (still being posted):

I actually would not poison on animal (but boy, I do know how to get you guys pissed off. I think I could like being a troll). This particular raccoon, I do believe is rabid and it needs to be removed (having had to deal with rabies upstate before, I know that you are allowed to destroy an animal that is a danger to yourself or your property. We actually had to shoot a raccoon before and the test did come back positive for rabies so I am familiar with what it looks like). I was really frustrated because I spent 2.5 hours on the phone being bounced from one city agency to another to another when all I wanted was someone from public health to a. tell me if the rabies has spread from Queens to Brooklyn yet, b. find out if they can drop some vaccine packs in the park and/or the cemetary and c. how to remove this raccoon and have it destroyed and tested. I never got a straight answer, I got transferred and transferred. I went to my city councilperson's office and he dealt with it and also got the run around. Don't you think SOMEONE would be concerned about a possible rabid animal near a city park that has a lot of rodents and stray cats?

This raccoon has chased my neighbor twice and tried to bite him. Got into the house and went after another neighbor(Raccoons get into houses but they usually growl and leave, they don't turn and charge). Tried to get into our house and then would not leave when we banged pots and pans to chase it away last night. Finally, we have a lot of stray unvaccinated cats in the neighborhood.

Okay, so Rocky has anger (and, possibly, rabies) issues. Us? We still like them. Now, about the gazillion rats running around Brooklyn...