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NEW YORK

Tensions mount between de Blasio, police union

Associated Press

NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is delivering the latest volley in his ongoing battle with the city's police union leaders.

In this image released by ABC, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, right, and his wife Chirlane McCray, appear on "The View," on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014, in New York. (AP Photo/ABC, Lou Rocco)

He dismissed their ability to speak for their rank-and-file members during an appearance Tuesday on the daytime talk show "The View."

He also criticized the Patrolman Benevolent Association's petition to ban him from future New York Police Department funerals as "inappropriate."

The relationship between de Blasio and the union has been rocky since before he took office in January.

It has grown steadily more poisonous in the wake of a grand jury's decision not to indict a police officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner.

PBA head Patrick Lynch accused de Blasio of throwing police officers "under the bus."

The PBA is working on an expired contract.