UPPER EAST SIDE — The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association has gone on the attack against area politicians, blasting their opposition to the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk tactic and accusing them of making "policing tougher and your neighborhood more dangerous."
The police union is calling for constituents to blitz Upper East Side City Council members Dan Garodnick and Jessica Lappin, as well as Queens' Mark Weprin, with emails and calls protesting their recent votes for anti stop-and-frisk legislation.
"THEY DIDN'T VOTE IN YOUR BEST INTEREST!" the union slammed the pols on its Web site, featuring photos of the pols enclosed in a red, slashed-out circle with the boldface caption.
"Daniel Garodnick, Jessica Lappin and Mark Weprin claim to represent your best interest, yet they voted for two bills that will make policing tougher and your neighborhood more dangerous."
One of two criminal justice bills passed by the City Council in late June would allow individuals to sue the NYPD if they believed they had been stopped and frisked because of racial profiling. The other bill creates an inspector general for the NYPD.
The PBA also mailed some 90,000 fliers to Garodnick, Lappin, and Weprin's constituents on Monday — and sporadically posted fliers on the Upper East Side — to raise awareness, the PBA confirmed and the New York Post first reported.
Text from graphics in those letters asks: "Is your City Council member pro-crime?"
Neither Lappin, who is running for Manhattan borough president, nor Garodnick, who is eyeing Christine Quinn's speaker seat, was available for comment.
Joseph Mancini, a PBA spokesman, said the union had yet to decide whether it would continue its campaign against the UES politicians.
"It depends on what happens, what the results are of this first mailing," he said. "If we get one council member to change his or her vote then presumably, we wouldn't need to pressure anymore."
Mancini also confirmed that other City Council members might be targeted in these latest lobbying efforts.