Cops

SOMETIMES, WHITE people just can't understand how the world looks to black people. A lot of whites see O.J. Simpson as a football hero who murdered his ex-wife; a lot of blacks see him as the victim of a frame-up. A lot of whites see Kobe Bryant as a rich superstar accused of rape; a lot of blacks see him as a young black man on trial for messing with a white woman. A lot of whites see Michael Jackson as a weirdo who sleeps with children; a lot of blacks see him as the subject of race-based police harassment.

The Police Department is considering prohibiting cops from bringing their guns into bars while off-duty, sources said. The ban would be part of an overall written policy governing off-duty conduct of officers, the sources said. The policy is being drafted because the Law Department 14 months ago warned that the city could be forced to pay huge sums of money to persons injured in barroom confrontations with off-duty cops. Police Commissioner Richard Neal did not respond to a request made to the department's public affairs office for information on when an off-duty policy might be announced.

District Attorney Lynne Abraham has won the all-important endorsement of the city's Fraternal Order of Police - yet another sign that the once-promising campaign of her Republican election foe Jack McMahon has failed to pick up any steam. The directors of the FOP - a group that typically carries a lot of clout with voters - voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to endorse the pro-death penalty Democrat who's been in office since 1991. McMahon, the controversial defense lawyer and former prosecutor, wasn't even invited to the FOP lodge.

THE CITY IS AT a point where it's time to save only those who want to be saved! The "stop-snitchin' " mentality is killing us, literally! (See the recent "60 Minutes" interview.) The police should take all of their officers deployed to West and North Philly to combat gun crime and regroup. It's time to put the extra officers in areas that can and want to be saved - Mount Airy, Mayfair, Overbrook Park and East Falls, which have a chance to flourish, with help. They have people who want and respect police but have seen some recent declines.

YORK - A high-speed police chase ended in an arrest after a man drove a stolen vehicle into the Susquehanna River and emerged naked after swimming ashore, police in York County said Monday. Authorities said Raymond David Kallenberger, 23, of Edgewood, Md., was driving a stolen minivan missing a tire. Authorities said they tried to pull him over about 10:15 a.m. Sunday after a report of an erratic driver. Springettsbury Township Police Chief Thomas Hyers said Kallenberger started taking off his clothes during the chase.

LETTER-writer Saleem Ali says, "The media make a big production when a cop is killed. It's on the TV, on the radio, in the paper. " And well they should. Police are put in place to protect all citizens of a city, and, when one is murdered, it conjures up fears of lawlessness and chaos. A large deal is made because it must resonate throughout every corner of this city that any attempt, successful or not, against a police officer's life will be resolved thoroughly, swiftly and justly.

Little Amire "Mandy" Lowe wet his pants, so someone punched him so hard in the stomach it killed him, police said. Yesterday police questioned his mother, Wendy Lowe, and her live-in boyfriend, Jamar Reeves, about the murder of the 2-year-old. No one has been charged. Reeves, 22, was baby-sitting the toddler Tuesday afternoon when the boy wet himself, police said. Reeves told detectives that he chastised the boy, then left him alone in a room. The next time he checked, Amire was dead, the boyfriend told cops.

Seven hours into the standoff, the swelling crowd pushed against police tape to catch a glimpse of a North Philadelphia drama yesterday. They were relatives, friends, neighbors. A handful were news photographers. Many were cops - in uniform, in plainclothes and in tactical gear. Police said the five men hiding inside the house had broken into the bar at the corner of 22nd and Cumberland streets at about 3 a.m., stealing a load of liquor, cigarettes and cash. The men then ran into the house next door, where a couple of them lived.

Authorities in nine states are retracing a South Jersey couple's 11-day death rampage by following a trail of blood from Georgia to the New Mexico border. Alicia Woodward, 18, and John Esposito, 21, were captured last week in Colorado. They face extradition for the murders of three elderly people who were plucked from outside neighborhood supermarkets, robbed and beaten. "We need to know how they got from Georgia to Oklahoma and if there are any other crimes committed along the way," Oklahoma County Prosecutor Robert Macy said yesterday.

If famous showman P.T. Barnum was correct in assuming "there's a sucker born every minute," then the Pennsylvania Fair at Philadelphia Park Race Track has apparently seen more than a few recently. Pennsylvania State Police raided the fair early Thursday night and confiscated seven "rigged" carnival games and arrested eight people who were charged with theft by deception. According to Trooper Thomas Taylor, who works out of State Police headquarters in Harrisburg, a few officers played the games for several days and picked out the "worst offenders," before making the raid.