While I understand that people can say stupid things when they’re in pain, it’s probably not very smart to publicly threaten the lives of police officers, especially when the officer in question had to put your cousin in the dirt because of his own rage issues.

The family of a Brooklyn man shot dead by an off-duty cop during a road-rage incident demanded Tuesday that the officer be charged in the killing — or they’ll “hunt him down” themselves.

Zoe Dempsey, the 23-year-old niece of slain dad Delrawn Small, said, “We will seek our justice’’ — and get violent if necessary.

“This is war. I’m from Brooklyn. This is our neighborhood,’’ Dempsey said.

Small was killed by Officer Wayne Isaacs as he pummeled the cop through the officer’s car window just after midnight Monday, cops said.

Dempsey said she and her pals “are hunting [Isaacs] down’’ if justice doesn’t prevail.

“So if I’m going to find him, he’s going to get what he deserves . . . If this hits trial and I have to pull up with my homies and we beat his ass, then I’m with that, too,’’ she said.

“We want to be able to trust the NYPD. [Small] didn’t deserve to die like that. He didn’t deserve to be shot in front of his family.”

But a high-ranking police source called the shooting “absolutely’’ justified, defending Isaacs against critics who suggested that he might have avoided the deadly escalation by getting out of his car and fleeing.

“The bottom line is, what the f–k would you get out your car for? What if those punches turn into [Small] stabbing [Isaacs] in the face?’’ the source said.

“Should [Isaacs] have shot him? Absolutely. I would have,’’ the source said.

As a general rule of thumb, allowing yourself to succumb to road rage is a bad idea, getting out of your car is a worse idea, and then beating the crap out of a police officer after he has identified himself to you is quite possibly the worst idea possible. While I hate to say that anyone deserves to be shot, Delrawn Small certainly did everything possible to ensure that Officer Isaacs had to shoot him in what pretty much everyone credible recognizes as a clearcut case of self-defense.

I sincerely hope that Ms. Dempsey is just blowing smoke, and that she isn’t as dumb and violent as her cousin. If not, there’s a distinct chance that Officer Isaacs might have the opportunity to put another simple-minded member of this violence prone family in the morgue.

They may not be as stupid as the crack suicide squad of the Judean People’s Front…

…But don’t don’t seem to be too far from it, either.