(DNAINFO) Nicole Bode and Katie Honan | April 21, 2017 — NYPD Boss James O’Neill hit back at the Trump administration Friday, accusing them of being “really insulting” to the work of the department after feds accused the city of going easy on criminals.

“I like to think of myself as a pretty calm and measured person, and I think most of the time I present myself that way. But when I read that statement by DOJ this afternoon, my blood began to boil,” O’Neill said during a press conference at police headquarters Friday.

“To say we’re soft on crime is absolutely ludicrous.”

The commissioner added that the administration’s statements were “really insulting” to the work of the NYPD and the memory of officers who died in the line of duty.

The remarks came after the Justice Department sent out letters to nine so-called sanctuary cities — including NYC and Chicago — threatening to pull funding if they continued to refuse to cooperate with federal agents.

“New York City continues to see gang murder after gang murder, the predictable consequence of the city’s ‘soft on crime’ stance,” read the letter, according to reports.

O’Neill pointed to the city’s “steady decline in overall crime that includes major reductions in murder and shootings” in a statement released before the press conference.

The city had the fewest shootings in history in 2017, and was down 17 percent from last year’s record low, he said.

“Since 1993, murder has decreased 82%, shootings have decreased 81%, and overall crime has decreased 76%. These are the facts,” O’Neill added in his statement.

Source: Trump’s Justice Dept. Was ‘Really Insulting’ to NYPD, O’Neill Says – Civic Center – DNAinfo New York