New York Daily News

Cop union blasts de Blasio DROP DEAD

Don’t come to our funerals!

- BY ANNIE KARNI, THOMAS TRACY and LARRY McSHANE With Rocco Parascando­la

THE NYPD’S big-bi gest union posted a blunt form to its website Friday that provides police officers a letter barring Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito from their potential line-of-duty funerals — due to their “consistent refusal to show police officers the support and respect they deserve.”

THE NYPD’S biggest union offered city cops a chance to hold their grudges against Mayor de Blasio—all the way to the grave.

A form appeared Friday on the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Associatio­n website for cops who want the mayor and Council Speaker barred from their potential line-of-duty funerals.

“As a New York City police officer, (I) request that Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito refrain from attending,” the letter declares.

The letter cites the pair’s “consistent refusal to show police officers the support and respect they deserve” — particular­ly after a Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner.

Cops were infuriated when the mayor said publicly that he had warned his biracial 17-year-old son, Dante, to tread carefully when dealing with the NYPD.

Representa­tives for the mayor and the speaker responded Friday with a joint statement condemning the union’s maneuver as divisive.

“This is deeply disappoint­ing,” the statement read. “Incendiary rhetoric like this serves only to divide the city, and New Yorkers reject these tactics. The mayor and the speaker both know better than to think this inappropri­ate stunt represents the views of the majority of police officers.”

PBA head Pat Lynch offered no comment Friday after giving cops the chance to draw a blue line in the sand to keep the mayor and Council speaker at bay.

Lynch was expected to speak Saturday at the annual Christmas party for the widows and kids of officers killed in the line of duty.

The unpreceden­ted attack on City Hall received mixed reviews from the rank and file — and from the father of a cop killed on the job.

Michael Williams Sr., 64, said he found de Blasio’s presence comforting after his son Michael died three months a go in an NYPD van crash.

“Politics are politics,” said the father. “I try not to mix them in with my personal feelings. I have no animosity for the mayor.”

Several officers seemed to side more with City Hall than their union leadership.

“I don’t think that’s right,” said a Brooklyn detective. “They shouldn’t be doing that ... Politics is politics, but that sounds a little personal.”

The detective acknowledg­ed that he was rankled by de Blasio’s comment that he had warned Dante to be wary of the NYPD.

“Nobody liked when he admitted that, but it’s not a reason to do something like this,” he said.

A Manhattan police sergeant said the union went too far.

“Is this for real?” he asked. “I mean, I agree with what he’s saying, but this is way out there.”

But one cop who didn’t want to be named agreed with the union — and said others did, too.

“There is not one police officer I know who doesn’t support this,” he said, adding that “95%” of cops felt the same way.

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