Andrea Peyser:Bring Kelly Rutherford's kids home!

NYPD's $60K dance studio not going over well

Meet Michael Julian, the dancing fool of the New York City Police Department — and my new personal hero. Why fight crime with aggression and the threat of deadly force when you can gently prod lawbreakers with rubber gloves into becoming harmless jelly?

Why go after bad guys with guns, nightsticks and F-bombs when you can teach cops to brandish breath mints, baby oil and, Julian’s latest brainstorm — Zumba?

Why try to defeat crime at all in Mayor de Blasio’s progressive city, in which murders and shootings are on the rise? Many of those who commit criminal offenses, from subway fare-jumping to public urination, would be reclassified as victims of income inequality, folks in need of hugs and affordable housing, if City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito succeeds in her quest to punish low-level offenders with summonses rather than arrests.

Oh, some potty-mouthed law-and-order types laugh at Julian, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for cardio workouts. Wait — I mean of personnel.

“A bunch of us were sitting around talking about popping Tic Tacs to keep us from cursing,’’ a former cop told me. “I said, ‘S–t, f–king mints? Why didn’t someone f–king think of this before?’ ’’

Chuckle all you want. This touchy-feely police big is a superhero who spends my tax money and yours on things designed to make people on both sides of the badge feel good about themselves.

Isn’t that the point?

As The Post reported last week, Julian spent $60,000 to transform an old printing room inside city Police Headquarters into a Zumba dance studio. For the uninitiated, Zumba gives devotees vigorous aerobic workouts set to a Latin beat.

But if Julian was determined to see cops work off stress, the way Zumba-aficionado Natalie Portman worked off her baby weight, killjoy Police Commissioner Bill Bratton disagreed. Vigorously.

Julian proudly took Bratton on a tour of Zumba Room S66 inside the basement of 1 Police Plaza, which workers had pimped out with exercise mats and flat-screen TVs.

Bratton was livid.

“That’s not what I wanted!’’ he snapped, sources told The Post. The commish insisted that all Zumba equipment be torn out. Last Tuesday, a sign on the door read, “Printing Section,’’ but no cops were seen entering or exiting. A pity.

(A police spokesman confirmed to Newsweek magazine that Julian requested that the room, which is adjacent to the current police fitness space, be turned partly into a facility for boxing workouts, yoga and, yes, Zumba. Bratton, he said, “does not have any issues with it.’’)

Julian is the goofball who came up with the idea in January that cops should pop breath mints to distract themselves from spewing profanity, much as smokers trying to kick the habit distract themselves with oral alternatives. A box of 10,000 individually wrapped mints arrived at Police Headquarters, but they were never handed out.

A week after Mintgate, Julian was reassigned from his job as deputy commissioner of training to his post atop personnel, which he held during Bratton’s first stint as city police commissioner in the 1990s.

After massive protests erupted following Eric Garner’s death in police custody, Julian suggested that cops spray demonstrators with baby oil to make it easier for authorities to pry them apart!

Astonished witnesses reported Julian said cops could use rubber gloves to help them grip slippery suspects. Next, I’d like to see crime fought with fairy dust and crystals.

But then it would be time to leave New York.