I KNOW ONE OF THE COPS who responded to the Abay's Wheeler Bar shooting in West Philadelphia where three people were killed and another was left critically wounded Saturday night. The bar was full of people at the time of the shooting, but by the time the cops arrived the only humans present had bullets in them. There were no witnesses and none have stepped forward. During that same weekend in the city of Philadelphia a total of 42 people were shot or stabbed. Seven of them died. By any standards, the "next great city" has some 'splainin' to do.

Tuesday evening when I saw one of the cops who responded to the bar shootings, he offered this explanation: "The brothers and sisters are running the city." He said it sadly. Without irony. Without disgust. He sounded nothing but tired. The brothers and sisters are running the city. And they're killing each like their job was murder.

Mayor John Street made those words famous a few years back while addressing a convention of African American municipal leaders from the East Coast. With almost Pentacostal joy, Street shouted, "The brothers and sisters are running this city. Oh yes!" His point being that Philadelphia government was dominated by qualified African Americans in leadership positions.

And perhaps this is why Street has cast a blind eye to the mayhem on the streets where most brothers and sisters live. How could they be running the city and killing each other at the same time. Don't they know how bad that makes him look?

Street has stood by his clueless Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson like father knows best long after the house has burned down. These two will go slouching toward January together like some awful prophesy unable to stop itself. Atlas shrugged. And Street blamed the media.

When the mayor and the police commissioner turn palms up to the citizens they protect and claim there is nothing more they can do, it is a sign of End Times. Street's press conference outside Abay Wheeler's death bar Monday was a classic. Sounding like George Bush defending his failed attorney general, Mayor Street described Johnson as "a great police commissioner." The last paragraph of the Inquirer press conference story by Marcia Gelbert contained a quote from Street during an interview last week, "It's real easy for a person to say, 'Where's the mayor? . . .'But I say, 'Where are you?'"

Well, thank you John F. Kennedy. Ask not, what the police can do for you. Ask what you can do for the police.

I'd say, "You jitbag." but then Street would have to Google it.