NYPD ‘do-nothing defense’ vid in doubt

The NYPD used a misleading video in an attempt to defend its own inaction after two dozen cops were caught standing idly by while a teenage girl was thrashed in the street, The Post has learned.

“Despite one newspaper’s account, our officers who came to the assistance of an 11-year-old girl being assaulted in Harlem on Sunday did not stand by. They were met by a large crowd that hurled projectiles at them and had to reposition, then called for additional officers,” the department claimed in a tweet, accompanied by a video of police retreating as bottles are thrown at them.

But the video shows cops are actually retreating in the direction of the girl — calling into question their excuse for not helping her.

The 14-year-old victim — originally listed as an 11-yearold in police reports — was attacked by a group of teens just after 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the corner of Madison Avenue and East 125th Street.

The NYPD’s video, which had no time stamp, was shot looking north on Madison

Avenue at East 124th Street. Bottles can be seen flying toward them from out of frame, as the officers retreat north on Madison Avenue — toward the intersection where the girl was attacked.

And the bottle-throwing may have come as much as an hour and a half before the girl was attacked. An analysis of videos shot by civilians suggests the bottle-throwing happened between 6 and 6:30 p.m. — at least an hour before the girl was beaten.

The NYPD refused multiple requests for comment.

The fight was just one of many that broke out during a chaotic, two-hour-plus ordeal after a hoops tourney. Craig McCarthy, Tina Moore

New York officials think they can just make up facts to rebut criticism, yet hard evidence keeps proving them wrong. Take The Post’s story citing a photographer who saw cops remain in the car while a teen was beaten. The NYPD denied the story, tweeting that cops “were met by a large crowd that hurled projectiles” and had to retreat. The tweet included a video of cops backing away as bottles are thrown.

Yet as The Post noted Thursday, the video wasn’t time-stamped, appears to have been taken well before the beating and shows officers “retreating” toward where the teen was. In other words, it was no rebuttal at all.

That misleading footage is part of the NYPD’s response to reports that cops are waging a “slowdown” after a rash of anti-police “reforms.” Officials also dispute a Post story about a dip in traffic tickets.

On Tuesday, Mayor de Blasio insisted there’s been an “increase” in arrests, even as the NYPD’s own stats show the opposite: Arrests are down 40 percent this year.

Meanwhile, few people ever bought claims by Gov. Cuomo and health czar Howard Zucker that “only” 6,400 New York nursing-home residents died of COVID-19. It’s been obvious that their decision to stop counting those moved to hospitals before they died was meant to keep the official death rate low, after they foolishly ordered homes to accept COVID-positive patients.

This week, the Associated Press cited federal figures suggesting the New York number might be as much as 65 percent higher — or 10,000 deaths in total.

There’s more: Zucker claims hospitals had enough personal protective equipment, despite reports of shortages: “Just because something is reported doesn’t mean those are the facts,” he said.

Ha! In March, as featured on the front page of The Post, three nurses at Mount Sinai West hospital posed in large, black plastic trash bags fashioned into makeshift protective garb — for lack of actual PPE.

Memo to Blas, Cuomo, Zucker et al.: If you’re going to fib, at least make sure there’s no evidence to prove you wrong.