Cop-slay threat suspect: It’s about free speech!

The Queens man busted for allegedly threatening to kill cops said he was just exercising his right to “free speech” — and blamed the whole thing on the retired officer who turned him in, calling him a liar who just “wanted to be this hero.”

“Whatever happened to free speech? I was only saying an opin ion,” Elvin Payamps, 38, told The Post Friday in an exclusive jailhouse interview at Rikers Island.

ExNYPD Officer Charles Otero told cops he overheard Payamps on his cellphone threatening to “kill another cop” before Christmas inside a TD Bank in Middle Village Wednesday.

“The cop should have been white that was killed. I always have a gun on me,” he allegedly said.

But Payamps, a construction worker who admittedly had two illegal guns and bulletproof vests in his house, said, “He twisted my words. He’s the one who should be prosecuted for lying.”

Payamps (inset) then accused Otero of just wanting to play the hero.

“He wanted to be this hero and say, ‘Look, I just took down this guy,’ ” he said.

Payamps claims he was chatting with a pal about police chokehold victim Eric Garner and simply said it would have made more sense if the revenge attack on cops had targeted whites.

“I didn’t mean any harm by it,” said Payamps, who has been busted for selling drugs and was once charged with menacing.

He even said he “supports the police” — so much so that he admitted flashing police union cards to get out of traffic tickets.

Before he was arrested, he planned to take his 13yearold son, whom he describes as his “everything,” to slain Officer Rafael Ramos’ funeral.

“I’m not the monster they are making me out to be. I’m not a terrorist,” he said, crying at times.

He worries for his wife and son, who have received death threats.

“I feel dead now. They killed my soul. They destroyed my family all because I said some stupid words, all because I have an opinion,” he complained.

Payamps is facing weapons charges, along with charges of aggravated harassment, unlawful use of a police uniform and pot possession.

Payamps said he regrets making the call that led to his arrest.

“I do say stupid things sometimes and I say things I shouldn’t, just like everyone else,” he said.