A Manhattan NYPD lieutenant has apologized to his fellow department members for taking a knee alongside George Floyd protesters — telling them that “the cop in me wants to kick my own ass.”
In a June 3 email obtained by The Post, Lt. Robert Cattani of the Midtown South Precinct wrote that he lost sleep over the “horrible decision to give into a crowd of protesters’ demands.”
Cattani was among at least four cops who submitted to demonstrators’ chants of “NYPD, take a knee” during a May 31 protest in lower Manhattan’s Foley Square.
The symbolic pose against racial discrimination gained prominence when former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem — but took on a dark new significance last month when a white Minneapolis cop was seen on video kneeling on Floyd’s neck shortly before Floyd’s death. The video sparked widespread outrage and protest.
In his email, Cattani said he struck the pose in an attempt to mollify the mob.
“The conditions prior to the decision to take a knee were very difficult as we were put center stage with the entire crowd chanting,” he wrote.
“I know I made the wrong decision. We didn’t know how the protesters would have reacted if we didn’t and were attempting to reduce any extra violence.”
Approximately 250 people were arrested and seven cops were injured citywide May 31 into June 1, although it wasn’t clear how many of those arrests and injuries were tied to the Foley Square protest, police said.
“I thought maybe that one protester/rioter who saw it would later think twice about fighting or hurting a cop,” Cattani wrote.
“I was wrong. At least that [sic] what I told myself when we made that bad decision. I know that it was wrong and something I will be shamed and humiliated about for the rest of my life.”
Police sources expressed relief that Cattani had apologized — but questioned what he was thinking in the first place.
“I’m glad he took it back, because your officers are out here battling with these guys and that’s what you do to show appreciation? Never show your weakness,” one insider said.
“You did it to appease these people who didn’t appreciate you anyway.”
Several other cops knelt at protests across the city throughout the unrest — including Chief of Department Terence Monahan, the NYPD’s highest-ranking uniformed cop — and garnered praise from both Police Commissioner Dermot Shea and Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Cattani, however, now wishes that he had stood tall.
“I spent the first part of my career thriving to build a reputation of a good cop,” he wrote. “I threw that all in the garbage on Sunday [May 31].”
Still, he condemned the actions of Sgt. Derek Chauvin, the now-former Minneapolis cop — and current murder defendant — who knelt on Floyd.
“We all know that a- -hole in Minneapolis was wrong,” Cattani wrote.
“Yet we don’t concede for other officers’ mistakes. I do not place blame on anyone other than myself for not standing my ground.”
Reached by phone, Cattani deferred questions to the NYPD’s press office.
The NYPD declined to comment.