Cops chant ‘Liar!’ at mayor during rally

Police took their contract fight directly to City Hall Wednesday.

More then 300 NYPD cops shouted “Liar! Liar! Liar!” at the top of their lungs as they carrying signs that said, “Mayor Bill de Blasio is offering NYC cops zero raises. He’s no ‘friend of labor.’”

Joined by Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch, the rank and file officers pointed giant foam fingers at de Blasio on the oneyear anniversary of the expiration of their contract.

“Mr. Mayor, you should’ve negotiated a contract with New York City police officers well over a year ago,” Lynch said. “We sat at the bargaining table and tried to get that contract. We’re now unfortunately on our way to arbitration because he refused to negotiate realistically with the women and men that patrol our streets.”

But de Blasio spokesman Raul Contreras noted that in 2015, the PBA went through arbitration and ended up with the same deal as other municipal unions.

“We’ve been working in good faith with the PBA to come to an agreement that is fair to police officers and taxpayers, as we did last year when we reached the second agreement between the City and PBA since 1995,” Contreras said. “However, the PBA decided to seek an arbitration process instead of joining us at the bargaining table. We’re ready to continue conversations to reach the fair contract our police officers deserve.”

The union and city did agree in January 2017 to a 2.25% increase for the neighborhood policing program. That deal covered years 2012 through 2017. They next sat down at the bargaining table in April 2017, but there hasn’t been any movement since then.

“What we’re saying is start talking realistically, stop with the stalling tactics,” Lynch said. “Stop trying to slow down our arbitration. We can get to a deal but we need someone to negotiate. We can’t negotiate with ourselves.”

The PBA did not tell the Daily News what they hope to get out of new contract and the city did not say what it is offering.

Lynch also took a swipe at de Blasio’s out of state trips.

“While we’re patrolling the streets without a contract doing our jobs, the mayor is inside on the computer trying to book a flight to New Orleans,” Lynch said. “Our message will follow you to New Orleans, it’ll follow you to Vermont, it’ll follow you to California, it’ll follow you to Iowa. This message cannot be stopped.”