After the deadly Pecan Park no-knock drug raid that left five undercover narcotics officers injured, Houston Police Officers’ Union president Joe Gamaldi looked into the television camera and offered a single, striking message: “Enough is enough.”

Since then, civil rights advocates and concerned citizens have echoed Gamaldi’s message, but not in the way he intended it.

Enough with no-knock raids, they’ve said. Enough with a failed war on drugs. Enough of a police union head who threatens critics.

Two Houstonians, Dennis Tuttle, a 59-year-old Navy veteran, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58, and their dog, were shot to death in that raid. Police Chief Art Acevedo now says at least one officer, veteran narcotics case agent Gerald Goines, lied to get the search warrant for the home. The two bags of heroin supposedly bought at their house, according to undercover officer Steven Bryant, were taken from Goines’ police car.

Confidence in the Houston Police Department took a hit as a result of that botched drug raid, and Gamaldi’s comments only made things worse.

The people of Houston deserve a police department they can trust to protect and serve. Police officers deserve a union head who has their backs — and that means working to improve community trust rather than undermining it.

Gamaldi has failed them in that respect, and he now has the responsibility to apologize. Doing so will help rebuild confidence in HPD. If he can’t do that, then our police deserve a new union leader — one who understands that backing the blue means building trust, too.

When news of the chaotic raid broke, the only thing people knew was that a shootout had sent officers to the hospital. The whole city worried that we’d soon be mourning over somber notes of bagpipes and the blast of a 21-gun salute at yet another police funeral. Thankfully, the officers survived.

In that moment of maximum sympathy, Gamaldi should have sought to deepen the bond between Houstonians and the officers sworn to protect us, but he escalated tensions instead. After paying rushed lip-service to that sense of unity, Gamaldi quickly launched into an bizarre and angry attack on the perceived enemies of law enforcement.

“Enough is enough,” Gamaldi said. “If you’re the ones out there spreading the rhetoric that police officers are the enemy, well just know we’ve all got your number now. We’re going to be keeping track on all of y’all, and we’re going to make sure to hold you accountable every time you stir the pot on our police officers.”

Not only were his comments tone deaf, and threats of keeping tabs on police critics wildly inappropriate, his entire presumption has been undercut by what we now know about the disastrous — and quite possibly illegal — raid.

Gamaldi told the editorial board this week that he wished he had been more specific in his initial comments, which he said were targeted at extreme activists he says call for the deaths of police officers. Obviously, anyone calling for dead cops only works to exacerbate hate and violence.

But that’s not the message many Houstonians heard from Gamaldi. And when he was asked to clarify his comments on Fox & Friends after the raid, Gamaldi broaded his statement further: “I’m talking to the talking heads on some of these mainstream media outlets,” he said. “I’m talking to the activists who have severely just made our officers the enemy.”

A vast majority of Houstonians just want a police department that works to keep the city safe. The best way to elevate officers’ good acts is to ensure they’re not tarnished by the crimes of a few. That means taking criticism seriously and investigating dirty cops. It means police admitting when they’re wrong.

To her credit, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg has said her office will review more than 1,400 criminal cases in which Goines was involved — including 27 active cases. Goines and the other narcotics officers have done more to damage the public perception of law enforcement than any foul-mouthed activist could ever hope. Soon we’ll know how many other Houstonians have been the victims of wrongful raids and dishonest warrants. Gamaldi should by now recognize that sometimes, the critics are right — and they should be heard rather than attacked.

Mayor Sylvester Turner said as much during a press conference Wednesday. “For those who have been in this city for quite some time when it comes to police relations with the community, we have come a long way,” he said. “And that is why it is important for us to work extra hard to hold onto the trust of the people in this city, to work to build a relationships between police and community, because quite frankly we’re all on the same team.”

For the sake of that trust, Gamaldi needs to show that he’s on the team.