#De Blasio defends NYPD decision to end standoff with BLM protester

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Mayor Bill de Blasio; Cops trying to enter the protester’s home during a standoff on Friday.
James Messerschmidt; FreedomNews.TV

The protester accused of shouting in a cop’s ear with a high-power bullhorn — and who forced cops to retreat after they tried to arrest him for it — now faces up to seven years prison on felony assault charges.

Meanwhile, Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a statement Saturday defending Commissioner Dermot Shea ordering his tactical-gear clad officers to end the Hells Kitchen standoff by leaving, a move that had outraged cops and their union reps.

“Commissioner Shea made the right decision to call off the operation,” de Blasio said.

“Assaulting an officer is unacceptable and will always lead to consequences, but arrests must be made properly.”

Protester Derrick Ingram, 28, remained in custody Saturday pending his arraignment in the June 14 assault.

The charges say he “placed the megaphone against the officer’s ear and yelled” after the cop tried to stop him from entering a “frozen zone.”

Photos of the massive, battery-powered bullhorn show it was black with a “DEFUND THE POLICE” sticker slapped on its side.

Ingram — who heads a Black Lives Matter protest group that bills itself on its Instagram page as “a collective of non-violent activists” —  turned himself in early Saturday at Midtown North precinct, accompanied by a crowd of fellow protesters.

He had made headlines Friday during a heated standoff at his West 45th Street apartment.

As cops in tactical gear surrounded the building, Ingram remained inside, live-streaming out his window and conferring with his lawyers by phone.

Police said they had an arrest warrant, but did not show him one, he claimed — so he stayed indoors as a crowd of angry protesters joined the mob of dozens of cops already outside.

After six hours, during which protestors shouted “This is what democracy looks like” and a police helicopter circled overhead, Shea issued the order for the police to retreat, as first reported in The Post.

City police unions slammed the move — and demanded Shea own up to what PBA President Pat Lynch termed putting cops “in the dangerous position of backing down in the face of an angry mob.”