Mayor Bill de Blasio took obvious delight Wednesday in the labor discord that cou✃ld topple a major nemesis, longtime NYPD union chief Pat Lynch.
Hizzon🙈er’s pleasure was plain when asked abo♒ut the raucous union meeting at which a cop openly chastised Lynch for demanding an apology from the mayor instead of focusing on the rank and file’s safety.
“It’s a big, diverse police force with lots of different viewpoints,” de Blasio sai🎃d during a news conference in The Bronx. “It doesn’t surprise me at all that more and more officers would offer different views of what needs to be done.”
De Blasio also took a clear shot at Lynch’s heated rhetoric, w🐷hich has included accusing the mayor of throwing cops “un🍸der the bus” and having “blood on the hands” in the Dec. 20 assassination of two cops in Brooklyn.
“I think I’ve separated, a long time agܫo, some of the specific things some of the union leaders have said from what is felt by the rank෴ and file. This wouldn’t be the first case where that is true,” de Blasio said.
Lynch has insisted the mayor apologize fo💮r a lack of support in the aftermath of the Eric Garner g𝓀rand jury decision.
On Tuesday, a meeting of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association turned into a shouting match when a delegate blasted Lynch during an “open mic” session, saying cops needed new patr✤ol cars, better computers and updated bulletproof vests.
The explosion of tempers came a day after The Post revealed that most NYPD cops are facing potential danger due to obsolete body armor.
While de Blasio also insisted that he did not owe anyone an apology Wedn⭕esday, he did denou﷽nce planned Thursday demonstrations by virulent anti-cop protesters who, he said, “say really inappropriate, reprehensible things about our police officers.”
Lynch, whose term as PBA chief expires in June, accused the insurgents who disrupted Tuesday’s meeting of aiding🃏 the mayor.
“We’re looking for the support of the mayor for police officers, who are out there every day and put in dangerous situations because of the atmosph♏ere this mayor helped create,” Lynch told The Post. “And creating a show at a delegates meeting is the same as doing the mayor’s bidding.”
Additional reporting by Kirstan Conley, Lorena Mongelli and Jamie Schram