Sympathy for Bratton

Pity Police Commissioner Bill Bratton: He’s got a tough job — not just fighting crime but covering for Mayor de Blasio. In a letter at the bottomright on this page, Bratton stands up for his boss after we called de Blasio “Mayor Pollyanna” and argued that, for all his happy talk on crime, New Yorkers have plenty to worry about.

In fact, the “Pollyanna” editorial focused on the mayor’s odd talk of “criminal against criminal” shootings, when innocents had been caught in the crossfire. Cabby Barry Mamadou and former Cuomo aide Carey Gabay clearly weren’t thugs.

Anyway: “The outlook” for the city is “pretty good,” says Bratton. The mayor’s “on track to record the lowest and thirdlowest years for murder since the 1950s.”

More: “The good old days weren’t quite [as good]” as the media claim, he told a local paper. “Let’s get beyond the hyperbole ... [Mayor Mike] Bloomberg is gone. [Police Commissioner Ray] Kelly is gone. Get over it.”

Here’s hoping Bratton and de Blasio are right that crime’s not about to spike. But so far this year, murders are up 10 percent through Sept. 20. Last weekend, violence claimed 11 lives, more than five times the number for the same weekend in 2014.

And all this after de Blasio not only curbed stopandfrisk, but also enraged cops by slurring them as racist — and seated Al Sharpton as an equal to Bratton in a highprofile meeting after the Eric Garner tragedy.

So — while no one expects Bratton to admit it — New Yorkers are right to worry.

He’s got other woes, too — like a City Council even more wacky on policing than de Blasio. As Bratton has warned, council members out to pass yet more anticop laws are “interrupting and interfering” with his job.

It’s all a handful for a commissioner trying to keep crime at the lowest levels in decades. Then again, Bratton chose to take the job working for an outoftouch, copbashing mayor. Sympathy goes only so far.