Opinion

To back the NYPD — or not to back it

The cops — or their critics? New Yorkers are being forced to choose. And anyone who needs help deciding should just consider the 21 people shot last weekend, including two fatalities.

Last week, the United Federation of Teachers made its choice: It picked the Rev. Al Sharpton and others who’ve already convicted the entire NYPD, after a 6-foot-3, 350-lb. black man, Eric Garner, tragically died while resisting arrest.

It made that decision — agreeing to co-sponsor Sharpton’s anti-police march on Saturday — even before all the facts of that case have come out.

In The Post on Sunday, Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association head Patrick Lynch called out UFT boss Mike Mulgrew for siding against the police. But it’s not just the police-union boss complaining; many of Mulgrew’s members deplore the decision, too.

In an online petition, Staten Island’s Diane Morton-Gattullo is calling for Mulgrew to resign: “President Mulgrew does not represent my beliefs or me as a UFT member . . . Shame on you Mulgrew!!!” The petition already has nearly 800 signatures.

Perhaps those teachers are reading the same troubling headlines we are: Some 21 people were injured in a flurry of gunfire just this past weekend, including two fatalities in Washington Heights.

It’s too early to tell, of course, if violence in the city is destined to rise, and if the political attacks on the cops — and new restrictions they face — play a role in that.

At the same time, we’re as eager as anyone for results of the Staten Island DA’s probe of the Garner case and for all the facts to come out.

But the argument against selling out the NYPD and handcuffing cops is compelling. As this past weekend painfully proved.