Who’s the real April Fool?
Top cop Bill Bratton on Wednesday played the loyal attack dog for Mayor de Blasio and blasted The Post’s report that he stormed out of a City Hall meeting when his plea for more officers was rejected.
But multiple sources confirmed the story’s accuracy and said they were stunned by the shameless denials.
“An April Fools Day joke,” Bratton told reporters at a press conference, while holding up The Post’s front-page story detailing his tense meeting on Monday with Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris.
“Alexander Hamilton would be embarrassed,” the top cop said, referring to the paper’s founder.
The Post reported on Wednesday that Shorris told Bratton he would not green-light the hiring of 1,000 new cops despite months of lobbying by the commissioner.
“If I don’t get them from you, I’ll go to the City Council and get them!” Bratton shouted as he left the room, sources said.
Shorris shot back, “You don’t work for the City Council. You work for the mayor!”
Bratton insisted they did not meet on Monday and never had a contentious discussion — but sources stood by the narrative.
“I can’t believe he’s denying it,” a source said.
“The meeting happened, as described,” said a second source.
Mayor de Blasio’s office also denied the meeting, but reps for both men did not respond to requests for Bratton’s and Shorris’ schedules on Monday.
However, Bratton did reiterate his need for more cops and even declared, “I am very confident we will get additional officers . . . We will get additional officers.”
And he has several City Council members on his side — including Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. They said the mayor was dead wrong not to include the new cops in his preliminary budget.
“It continues to be a priority and we have broad, broad support in this council to continue to invest more resources in the form of more cops for the Police Department. So, that will definitely be a priority in our negotiations,” said Mark-Viverito, a Manhattan Democrat.
“We’ve consistently indicated that we want to see more officers, and we believe that there’s a need for it. So, we need more officers.”
Other members also voiced full support for Bratton.
“It’s time for Bill de Blasio to put his money where his mouth is,” declared Eric Ulrich (R-Queens).
“I think it’s a top priority for the people of this city, who want to live in a safe city, and it should be a priority for the administration. The fact that the administration is reluctant to hire additional police officers at the levels that we’d like to see really is troubling,” he said.
Ulrich said the pressure on de Blasio will mount as the July 1 deadline nears to pass a balanced budget.
“The point is that we have priorities. He doesn’t always share those priorities. We have to meet somewhere in the middle,” he said.
Vanessa Gibson (D-Bronx), chair of the council’s Public Safety Committee, said, “We all acknowledge that something needs to be done.”
Additional reporting by Yoav Gonen and Michael Gartland