As naive as it may seem, I still tend to assume that "the system" works more than it does not. So, as naive as it may seem, I was recently shaken by the words of several well-respected Black leaders and activists who condemned the New York City Police Department as being pretty much rotten to the core.

As a gay man who was damaged and corrupted by 40 years in the closet, I have no difficulty understanding the symptoms and manifestations of self-hatred, not to mention the pathetic and often-times frightening maneuvers used by self-haters to gain acceptance and invisibility among the so-called majority.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has challenged allegations of racism in the horrific Sean Bell shooting. Perhaps his most intriguing response has been to explain that the majority of police officers involved in the incident were in fact Black themselves. Kelly implies that it is illogical to accuse the NYPD of racism under such circumstances.

Some Black leaders have bitterly refuted this defense pointing out that the vast majority of "victims" of police shootings in this city are young African-American men. They contend that once an African-American puts on the NYPD uniform he ceases to be Black and in fact becomes Blue.

Is the NYPD so profoundly corrupt that it teaches racism to its uniforms? Are our cops, regardless of race, trained to make automatic assumptions about men on the street based on the color of their skin? Is racism in this most liberal and progressive of cities in fact pervasively institutionalized? Do Black men and women enter the force to change the system from within only to end up facilitating and enabling an even worse brand of racism?

If the criminal justice system is seriously biased against minorities and particularly against African-Americans, is it even possible for Black police officers to remain true to their own communities and heritage and stand with pride as part of the very organization that represents the enforcement arm of an allegedly racist system of justice?

Are Black officers a defense against racism in our criminal justice system or are they enablers of racism?

These are troubling questions that are now raised by the Bell shooting, and they are questions that have struck an uncomfortably familiar chord within my gay heart.

As a gay New Yorker, I find myself deeply troubled by the possible analogy between Black cops and Gay Republicans. In fact, are Black cops cut from the same cloth as gay Republicans?

Gay Republicans take the position that they can change the system by working from within. The majority of gay men and women, myself included, see Gay Republicans as Uncle Toms who enable homophobia, wallow in self-hatred and sell their souls to gain acceptance by the so-called majority, a majority that openly crusades to deny us, as Gay Americans, our civil rights and our equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I've never before considered the New York City Police Department in this way. Have I been wrong? Are the Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond incidents of the Giuliani days the rule rather than the exception? Are there no white or black cops, but only racist blue cops in this city?

It may be that a few hearings and debates will produce little more than window dressing. Do we need a revolution at the center? Perhaps Christine Quinn's gay perspective may be of some real use in this situation as she looks within the system, the police department and the heart of Ray Kelly.

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