Sometimes The Only Ones Have Only Once Choice

More about the cops indicted in the Sean Bell case:

"Now comes the trial, with time out for motions and a probable application for a change of venue - a not-unreasonable request under the circumstances.

"I'm going to keep this in the street," the Rev. Al Sharpton vowed last November - and, as always, he hasn't disappointed.

Yet Sharpton and his ilk weren't the only ones in the streets of late.

Take some of the incidents that city cops faced last week:

* Crowds at a high-school basketball championship game at Madison Square Garden began a near-riot Sunday night, stretching all the way from 33rd Street to 42nd and Times Square. Gunfire erupted. Cops on horseback were called in. The Deuce had to be shut down.

* On Tuesday, gunman Corey Mickins shot plainclothes officer Robert Tejada twice in a Harlem restaurant.

* Later that night, police say Hugo Hernandez stabbed transit officer Angel Cruz in the head with a hunting knife during a life-or-death struggle at a Brooklyn subway station.

* On Wednesday night, two unarmed auxiliarly cops were executed in cold blood by a deranged ex-Marine who had just murdered a bartender in Greenwich Village. Police managed to kill the gunman, David Garvin, after a total of 56 shots were fired..."

Cops are taught to...repeat after me...shoot until the threat is over. Since everyone remains in love with the wondernines (or for that matter the wonder40's), we're not putting the genie back and demand marksmanship in favor of spray and pray. 35,000 cops herding over 8 million eloi and once a decade they trigger their popguns once too often until one Reverend or another takes umbrage.

Think of it this way, because I do so lets take a common ground to examine: You're standing a checkpoint. A vehicle rams into one of yours, knocks down a fellow checkpointer, then shifts from forward to reverse then back again as it tries to flee, not caring who or what gets run over.

In NYC or Baghdad, this means you pump in enough lead to turn AlGore insane. Insaner. I stand corrected.

Almost 10 blocks of Manhattan were shut down after that high school basketball championship game when the animals ran rampant. Cops being assholes is one thing. Fighting for your life against raging animals is another.