Metro

Ire over NYPD honor of ex-Commish Ben Ward

The NYPD is planning to name the library at its new Police Academy after former Commissioner Ben Ward — infuriating some retired cops who think he mishandled an incident at a Harlem mosque that left an officer dead 42 years ago.

A memorial plaque for Phil Cardillo

Critics insist the honor should go instead to Phillip Cardillo, who was killed in the 1972 violence. That year, now-retired Detective Rudy Andre had to forcehis way inside the Nation of Islam Mosque No. 7 after Cardillo, responding to what turned out to be a false report of an officer in trouble, had entered and been shot.

“Officers have had schools named, streets re-named and police boats named in their honor while my fellow officer and colleague has only a lonely marker at his grave site in Queens,” Andre said.

Ward, then the department’s deputy commissioner for community affairs, ordered white cops to leave the mosque at the height of the disturbance, witnesses have said. Then, after 16 suspects were briefly detained, he arranged for them to be let go.

Ward apologized to Louis Farrakhan, the mosque’s minister, for “invading” the building. Neither then-Mayor John Lindsay nor Commissioner Patrick Murphy attended Cardillo’s funeral.

The news that Ward would be given the honor came at a June 5 luncheon, when Deputy Chief Theresa Shortell, the academy’s commanding officer, spoke to the Superior Officers Association Retired.

It stunned the crowd; some even walked out.

The new academy, in College Point, Queens, will open in July.