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houting and shoving erupted among cops at a tense Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association meeting in Queens on Tuesday, according to union sources.
Tempers flared toward the end of the nearly two-hour session at Antun’s in Queens Village when some members began yelling at PBA President Patrick Lynch over his declaration that Mayor de Blasio owes cops an apology.
“This is what my members want: they want more cars, better vests, more manpower,” one cop shouted, according to the sources. “They don’t want an apology.”
Another union member told Lynch: “I don’t care about an apology. I want to know what you’re going to do to protect us.”
Lynch said he disagreed about the importance of an apology, according to the sources.
The meeting then disintegrated into a physical conflict between cops who support Lynch and those who don’t, the sources said.
“They were screaming,” one source said. “Lynch’s guys got up and there was shoving and pushing. It got ugly.”
The source said delegates had been getting questions from their cops.
“They want to know if there’s a plan,” the source said, referring to whether cops should make more arrests.
Cops also wanted to know what happened at a Dec. 30 meeting of five police union heads and the mayor at the new Police Academy.
“They asked Lynch directly, ‘What did you ask the mayor for?’” the source said.
But Lynch wouldn’t discuss what happened at the meeting, the source said.
The yelling and screaming lasted about 10 minutes before Lynch adjourned the meeting and left.
“He didn’t want to talk about it,” the source said. “He said, ‘Everything we say gets back to the media.’ He was just refusing to answer. He said, ‘It is what it is.’”
But a police source who’s a Lynch supporter said delegates planning to run against the longtime PBA leader are behind the brouhaha.
