Opinion

HE DESERVES HERO’S MEDAL, NOT A LASHING

THIS is nuts: A cop risks his life to do his duty – and the NYPD punishes him for it?

The Post reported yesterday that Detective Ivan Davison came under fire from an automatic Tec-9 pistol early Sunday while breaking up a potentially fatal beating in Queens.

Davison bravely returned fire, wounding the perpetrator – a thug with a lengthy rap sheet.

No one else was injured.

But no sooner had the gun smoke cleared than the detective was stripped of his gun and placed on modified duty.

He stands to lose his career – and that is an outrage!

Davison is a hero.

He deserves his gun back.

And it should be hand-delivered by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly – with a Medal of Honor, the NYPD’s highest award for bravery, pinned to the holster.

The problem?

Under rules adopted after the Sean Bell shooting, cops who fire their weapons are required to take a breathalyzer test.

The detective failed; he registered a blood-alcohol reading of 0.09, barely over the department’s 0.08 limit.

Not exactly falling down drunk, now, was he?

Off-duty New York City cops are generally required to:

* Carry weapons when off duty.

* Intervene when they encounter crime – especially violent crime.

This is in the city’s best interests.

Nobody wants cops who close their eyes to trouble – and that’s exactly the direction in which the department will be headed if this hero cop is not promptly restored to full duty.

Whether the mandatory breathalyzer test is sound policy is itself open to question. There is no evidence alcohol played a significant role in Sean Bell’s death.

But clearly the 0.08 blood-alcohol standard is unreal – unless the objective is to put all city cops on the wagon for their entire careers.

And that’s simply ridiculous.

Cops are required to be “fit for duty” at all times – an admittedly vague, but nonetheless realistic, standard.

There will be officers who violate that standard – and they need to be dealt with appropriately.

But nobody can reasonably say that Detective Davison was anything other than a credit to the department Sunday morning.

Hey, even Mayor Bloomberg agrees.

“I think the officer acted correctly,” he said yesterday.

That puts the ball in Kelly’s court.

He needs to do the right thing – and that would be immediate restoration to full-duty status for this brave detective.

That, and a medal.