#NYPD top cop Dermot Shea says City Council bowed to ‘mob rule’ with NYPD cuts

City Council bowed to “mob rule” when it slashed the NYPD’s budget by $1 billion, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Wednesday morning, while acknowledging the reduction will present a “significant challenge” but won’t “cripple” the department.

“You’ll see in the City Council, [a] bow to mob rule,” Shea said. “And let’s mark the date on the calendar and how long it’s going to be before we’re having a conversation about New York is crying out for more police. And I think that day has come.”

The city has seen a recent spike in shootings. Last week’s total shooting tally more than doubled compared to the same period last year.

About 47 percent of New York City voters opposed defunding police, compared to 41 percent who supported shrinking the department, according to a Siena College poll released Tuesday.

The top cop made the statements on Good Day New York, hours after the council approved the substantial cuts — amid an outcry from demonstrators seeking to defund the department in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

“I don’t think of crippled,” Shea said of the department now that it’s head count has been reduced by 1,000 and its overtime was reduced.

“I think some of this is shifting money to other agencies [and] doesn’t save money at all, really” he added, referring to the transfer of school safety agents from NYPD to the Department of Education.

“But make no mistake, I think this is going to be a significant challenge, it’s going to impact how we police, it’s going to impact neighborhood policing.”

He also discussed the impact on officers’ morale — which he said at least partly plays into a recent surge in retirements.

The comments echoed police unions, which also opposed the cut.

“The people of this city will suffer most from the $1 billion in cuts to the NYPD budget,” said Paul DiGiacomo, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association.

“Instead of cutting funds and reducing headcount, the city council and mayor should have invested more money in the NYPD to provide the necessary training and guidance for officers to properly understand how to arrest violent individuals in light of newly passed, ill-advised bills.”

Added Lieutenants Benevolent Association president Lou Turco: “The reduction in headcount will jeopardize the safety of New Yorkers.”

Shea also slammed a new city legislation that bans chokeholds in all situations and bars officers from sitting, kneeling or standing on a suspect’s chest and back during an arrest — calling it an “insane bill.”

“I would invite right now probably any member of the City Council to come to our police academy and view our training,” the top cop said. “Better yet, you can participate in our training and let’s see how you’re going to handcuff somebody who wants to fight with you without having your knee come in contact with their diaphragm. It is a law that should’ve never been signed, it’s a law that is crippling police in this city and I think that the people of New York City need to know that.”

He blasted the notion that an officer could be arrested for such a tactic — in situations where a suspect is violently resisting arrest — as “the definition, I think of insanity.”