Patrick Bobilin calls himself a “fighter” — and the NYPD agrees.
The 37-year-old candidate for State Assembly in Manhattan was collared by cops after allegedly smashing the windshield of a driver June 19 during a Black Lives Matter protest on the Upper East Side.
The NYPD identified Bobilin, wearing a black Colin Kaepernick T-shirt, as one of two men in a video pounding on the SUV of a 23-year-old motorist. In the footage, it appears Bobilin strikes the windshield with a dark object.
“Two individuals banged on his vehicle while he was stopped at the intersection, smashed the front windshield window and caused damage to the hood,” said police spokeswoman Annette Shelton.
Bobilin and his pal were both charged with criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and harassment, Shelton said.
He declined to get into specifics of how be broke the windshield, noting to The Post that the case was “still active.” But he claimed his actions were defensive after the driver attempted to “ram” protesters.
“I saw people at risk and I saw something like what happened in Charlottesville,” he said.
“My body drew me to throw myself on top of that car to make sure it did not harm one of my neighbors. When someone is weaponizing their motor vehicle against someone’s body, there is zero justification for that.”
The driver was not charged.
Video of the incident posted to social media shows protesters choking traffic while marching down Lexington Avenue.
The crowd began pummeling a dark SUV after the driver honked at them and began to proceed through an intersection with a green light.
“Civil disobedience and protests often require marshaling and stopping of cars because they do disrupt traffic,” said an unapologetic Bobilin, who has worn the arrest as a badge of honor.
His campaign announcement video features a potential future constituent, Cybil Victor, praising his actions and noting that “he saved our lives.”
Bobilin, a Democratic Socialist, had been marching with protesters as part of a wave of demonstrations against alleged police violence after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
A longtime Upper East Side community activist and former vice president of the East River Democratic Club, Bobilin said he helped organize protests in the Big Apple, including ones at Gracie Mansion.
Last October Bobilin nearly derailed a Democratic county committee meeting at Denny Farrell Riverbank State Park after he accused a state committeeman of “harassment and stalking.”
“It gives me no pleasure to talk about this,” Bobilin said as he came in to a chorus of boos from the audience of nearly 1,000 of the party faithful. “You are booing victims,” he shrieked.