De Blasio tells NH voters he ‘healed’ rift between NYPD and public

When in New Hampshire, Mayor Bill de Blasio sees his relationship with the NYPD through rose-colored glasses.

At WMUR’s “Conversation with the Candidate” in Manchester last week, the long-shot 2020 candidate was asked about his “strained” ties to Big Apple cops by an astute audience member named Terrence.

“Your relationship with the NYPD has been described as strained, combative and frosty. Same could be said for the current president towards the intelligence community,” Terrence asked during the Aug. 22 exchange that aired Thursday.

“How can you assure voters that you are the right candidate to unite this country when many Americans believe that these types of adversarial relationships are what is dividing us?” Terrence added.

De Blasio rejected the premise of his question.

“I appreciate the honestly of your question, but those descriptions — it may be accurate for my relationship with some of the vocal, and I think mistaken, leaders of certain police unions — but not of the rank-and-file of our police force, and especially not the leadership of our police force,” de Blasio insisted.

The comment came three days after NYPD Police Commissioner James O’Neill decided to fire Office Daniel Pantaleo for causing the death of Eric Garner.

Pantaleo’s ouster drew strong condemnation from police unions.

The head of the 24,000-member Police Benevolent Association, Patrick Lynch, angrily called for a union vote of “no confidence” for both O’Neill and de Blasio.

“We have healed the relationship between the police and the community that had been strained for a long time and it needed healing,” de Blasio told the Granite State audience.

Hizzoner didn’t mention that just four days earlier, an anti-cop mob hurled objects from Brooklyn rooftops at cops, leaving three officers injured.

That incident followed a series of July water-bucket attacks on members of the NYPD.

De Blasio also shrugged off the questioner’s comparison to the current president.

“I don’t see the comparison to what Donald Trump has done, which is to ignore his own intelligence leaders,” he said.

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