Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is just jealous of former top cop Ray Kelly’s decorated career — and blaming him for killing morale in the NYPD was a total “cheap shot,” Kelly’s brother said Tuesday.
“I think it’s a cheap shot by Bratton. I think he’s paranoid of Ray and always has been, and he’s a back-slapping, smiling guy,’’ Donald Kelly said on WABC Radio’s “Curtis & Kuby’’ show.
“I’m mad as hell, so I’ll try to calm down . . . I never cared for Bratton, and I think I’m right about that.”
In an interview broadcast Sunday, Bratton criticized Ray Kelly and former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, saying their overuse of stop-and-frisk had left NYPD morale in the toilet when Bratton took over.
“Morale coming into this department was awful,’’ Bratton told WABC/Channel 7’s “Up Close with Diana Williams.”
Ray Kelly, 72, has refused to comment on Bratton’s remarks — but Kelly’ s 79-year-old brother rushed to his defense on the radio show.
“Let me tell you about Ray; a lot of people don’t know about him: 27 years active duty as a cop, 15 medals, worked in street crime, got four degrees, two master’s and [a] law degree and one master’s paid for by the Police Foundation at Harvard; a year of combat in Vietnam,” Donald said.
“He commanded three precincts while he was a captain, all in minority neighborhoods. The 88th the Fort Greene, the 71 in Crown Heights and the 106 in Jamaica/South Ozone Park.
“In each case . . . he was lauded, and he received accolades by the people, all three virtually 100 percent minority except to qualify with the 71 — a large Orthodox community,” added Donald, a retired bank veep and dad of four from Queens.
NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis declined to comment.
But Ray Kelly’s ex-rep, ex-NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, told The Post that Ray’s “record speaks for itself. And it’s undiminished by any critics,’’ Browne said.
“Commissioner Kelly’s legacy was cemented in the reality of record declines in homicides, particularly in minority neighborhoods, and the creation of a world-class counterterrorism program that kept New Yorkers safe . . . after 9/11.’’
When Donald Kelly first called in to the radio show, its hosts, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa and civil-rights lawyer Ron Kuby, thought it might be part of an April Fools’ Day hoax.
So they asked the caller where Ray Kelly went to high school — “St. Anne’s and Bishop Malloy” — and his rank when he retired from the Marines — “full colonel.” After Donald passed, they chatted.
Donald Kelly, when reached by phone, declined to comment beyond declaring, “I just had to say what I had to say.’’