New York Post

Blas must apologize, says Kelly

- By LARRY CELONA, SHAWN COHEN and KIRSTAN CONLEY

Former NYPD Commission­er Ray Kelly declared on Monday that Mayor de Blasio should “apologize” for creating a tense environmen­t between New York’s Finest and those in charge at City Hall.

Kelly appeared on Fox’s “Good Day New York,” where he called for de Blasio’s mea culpa over comments and policies that have infuriated cops.

“I think the mayor has to give something. He has to, you know, sort of make amends,” Kelly said.

“I think an apology is appropriat­e, or perhaps a third party gets involved here, too, to bring them together.”

Kelly stressed the importance of the two sides coming together as the city faces immense challenges after the terror attacks in Paris last week.

“Hopefully, they continue to communicat­e, because we have to get beyond this,” Kelly said.

Pat Lynch, the head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Associatio­n, said earlier this month that an apology from de Blasio “would go a long way” toward repairing frayed relations between cops and City Hall.

Lynch repeatedly has said that de Blasio has not been supportive enough of city police officers.

Meanwhile, the NYPD slowdown may be easing a bit, but top brass wants cops to speed it up.

Summonses issued for lowlevel crimes, traffic violations and illegal parking between Jan. 5 and Sunday were down by between 65 percent and 74 percent compared with the same period a year ago.

But the low productivi­ty numbers represent an improvemen­t over the stunning, 90percentp­lus drops recorded the previous two weeks.

Overall, arrests were down 38 percent, continuing the trend of increased activity from a 66 percent plunge two weeks earlier.

Arrests for major crimes were down 15 percent, virtually unchanged from the prior week, but that’s still a huge improvemen­t over the 40 percent drop a week before that.

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