NYPD cops handcuffed

Mayor de Blasio is so vain, he announced the outcome of the Pantaleo case during the Democratic debate in Detroit, predicting it would be resolved in the Garner family’s favor within 30 days. Sure enough, on Friday, an NYPD administrative judge recommended Officer Daniel Pantaleo be fired for the 2014 death of illegal-cigarette seller Eric Garner during an arrest.

You can’t blame New York City cops for thinking the fix was in. But if de Blasio and his police commissioner think they can railroad a good cop for doing his job, they have misunderstood the nature of policing.

Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch on Friday pointed out that “three, four, five times a tour for New York City police officers, we’re sometimes in this position where we have to put our hands on someone where someone resists arrest.

“So now you call 911, what do you expect us to do? I hope you expect us to do our job, but we expect backing, which we’ve found out today we will not have.

“We all watched videos recently here where police officers were subject to water being dumped on their head, and unfortunately, you saw police officers put their heads down and slink away. That’s how every one of us feel today because we just found out that.

“City Hall will not truly stand up for what’s right and what’s wrong, only politics, only the loudest in the room.

“The criminal advocates have gotten what they want . . . The police department is frozen. [They] can’t stop the killers, they can’t stop the criminals, they can’t effectively do their job.”

If police officers can’t use force when someone is resisting arrest, they can’t arrest anyone. And it will be the most vulnerable who suffer.