BOSTON — Mayor Michelle Wu has touted Boston as the “safest major city” in America for two years, but the city’s largest police union says the recent spate of violence and attack on cops has it trending more toward Chicago’s lawlessness.

“Safest city in America? Not so much,” the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association posted on social media Tuesday. “The increasing levels of violence and attacks on police should have everyone concerned. And if a triple shooting in Boston’s Theater District doesn’t grab your attention, you may want to check for a pulse.”

The union’s post came on the heels of a Monday night triple shooting, and as videos were going viral of a Boston police officer who tried to arrest a man Sunday night in Dorchester, but saw his efforts thwarted when a crowd intervened, throwing drinks and objects at the cop before the suspect got away.

BPPA President Larry Calderone told the Boston Herald that the city doesn’t have enough police officers, which is driving the uptick in violence, along with what he described as a ho-hum response from city officials, who aren’t publicly acknowledging the crime spree.

Wu’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Calderone put the force at roughly 600 cops short of appropriate staffing levels, which he said equates to “about a third of our workforce.”

He also blasted city councilors for exacerbating the matter by their calls to cut police overtime in the city budget, which he said has led the department to “cut minimum staffing down to the bare bone,” and avoid hiring police on overtime, as was past practice to ensure sufficient cops on the street.

Case in point, Calderone said, was the situation captured on the viral videos. One cop reportedly responded to a street takeover of 100 to 150 people drinking and playing loud music because there weren’t enough police available on duty to send multiple units, he said.

“It’s crazy that we’re jeopardizing public and police officer safety because we’re worried about a buck,” Calderone said. “It’s a recipe for disaster. Somebody’s going to get seriously hurt, and we don’t want to wait that long, and that’s what the members are pissed about.”

Calderone said Boston is still “one of the safest cities” in the country, but he sees it trending in the wrong direction, with weekend shootings becoming more frequent. He sees this summer as a potential tipping point for its safest city reputation.

He pushed back on metrics used by the police and city officials to determine safety. Homicides may be down this year again, Calderone said, but that’s “because the 15 people that have been shot in the last four weeks didn’t die.”

“The department and our elected officials would have you look at Hacky-sack playing cops and FIFA than acknowledge the street takeovers, the violence, the larcenies, the aggravated assaults and the shootings happening every weekend,” Calderone said. “We’re just a few extra shootings away from becoming like Chicago and that’s what we’re worried about.

“If we wait too long and become like Chicago or Baltimore, then we’ve already lost the battle,” Calderone added.

He said violence is up in Boston, but the police department’s manpower is down compared to 18 months ago.

“Those numbers don’t lie, and that’s what makes communities like Chicago and Baltimore,” Calderone said. “That’s what turns once great cities into garbage cities, and we don’t want to see our great city turn into a garbage city that’s ridden with violence.”

When asked about the criticism, BPD spokesperson Mariellen Burns told the Herald the city is “at half the homicides we were at this point last year,” halfway through the year. The Herald reported last month that there were seven homicides, as of mid-June, compared to 16 by that time last year.

Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox told reporters Wednesday, “We’re at the midway point of the year, and we’re doing pretty well with the city as far as overall crime,” though he said there’s been a “slight uptick in aggravated assaults.”

“We’ve had, certainly, an uptick in street takeovers, things of that nature,” Cox said. “We want to remind the public, if they see something, say something.”

City Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy made statements this week indicating they agree more with the police union’s take than Wu’s police commissioner.

Both condemned the attack on the city cop and called for increased police staffing, while stating that Boston should no longer be touted by city officials as the “safest major city.”

“It’s a false narrative,” Flynn told the Herald. “Boston residents know it’s not the safest city. When someone is selling drugs in your neighborhood and violent crime is taking place in front of your house, you can’t call Boston the safest city in America.”

Murphy added that city officials “need to stop hiding behind the claim that Boston is the safest city in the country.”

“What does that title mean when residents in too many neighborhoods are witnessing violent crime and telling us they do not feel safe?” Murphy said. “Safety is not a slogan or a ranking. It is whether people feel protected in their neighborhoods, on their streets, or in their homes.”

Calderone said Flynn and Murphy were two of the few councilors to respond to the police union amid their call to action during the latest wave of city violence. Others, he said, were John FitzGerald, Gabriela Coletta Zapata, Henry Santana and Enrique Pepén.

Calderone declined to answer questions about whether his criticism marks a break from the union’s recent support of the mayor, whom the BPPA endorsed in her reelection bid last year and began to engage with on new contract negotiations this week.

Instead, he’s blasting the city councilors who “grandstand against” the police budget while “quietly begging the commissioner for more bodies” in their high-crime neighborhoods, rather than having the “moxie” to publicly “stand up for their constituents.”

“Where is Ruthzee?” Calderone said. “Where is Julia Mejia? Where is Liz Breadon, the Council president? Where are the Worrell brothers? Where is Culpepper? These are their neighborhoods; these are their constituents. … Where’s their balls?”

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