Christine M. Flowers: A LITTLE PROPORTION, PLEASE

MORAL equivalence is popular with liberals. Apples, oranges, what's the difference. They're both fruits, right?

They did this with Abu Ghraib, becoming apoplectic when photos emerged that showed some soldiers acting like lawless bullies. But instead of getting a grip and pointing out that what went on there was a day at the spa compared to the horrific activities carried out under Saddam Hussein, they blithely threw around terms like "torture" and "war crimes."

Then we had Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois calling Guantanamo a "gulag," something with which many bleeding hearts cheered even though Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Natan Sharansky and Andrei Sakharov - who survived the real Soviet version - might have disagreed. (By the way, one of the guys who was released after three years at Gitmo just blew himself up on a terror mission in Iraq. Guess he was anxious to get at those 72 virgins.)

Liberal critics like this usually don't worry too much about being inconsistent. They never met a specious comparison they didn't like.

So it isn't a surprise that they've now focused on an alleged case of "police brutality" in the heated hours after Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski was executed. Although you hate to see this type of behavior, it's certainly understandable how officers who'd lost a brother and who were under a heightened state of stress might have flown off the handle when apprehending suspects involved in a triple shooting, two of whom turn out to have records involving drugs and firearms.

But hey, why worry about details when you have a chance to scream about police brutality?

The lawyer for the unlucky trio really stepped up to the plate. He said that the police had "engaged in behavior that is indicative of guerrilla-warfare tactics that we would see in Iraq before we liberated that country."

Right. Philadelphia police and al Qaeda operatives. Apple here, orange there, same darn thing.

That a law-school graduate could make that kind of comment shows just how far into Wonderland we've wandered. Police apprehend three suspects who might have resisted arrest, and get a little kick-happy for a few minutes and civilization as we know it has come to an end.

Meanwhile, preparations are being made to bury a fallen hero. He wasn't kicked to death. He was assassinated in cold blood. And yet his death is pushed slightly to the side so we can bash a few of his devastated comrades, men and women who haven't slept in days and who are struggling to deal with a common grief.

My suggestion: Let's ignore the unfortunates who got slapped around a bit because they were up to no good. Instead, let's turn our attention to the ones who matter:

_ Officer James Ramp, executed by the unwashed MOVE assassins.

_ Officer Daniel Faulkner, casualty of a hack who passed himself off as a "journalist," a many-times reaffirmed criminal who manages to mesmerize the pushovers in Hollywood and academe with his rancid bill of goods.

_ Officer Thomas Trench, murdered while sitting in his patrol car with two bullets to the head fired by a man who should have been put to death decades ago but is still litigating the technicalities.

_ Officer Gary Skerski, gunned down in cold blood by a man whose lawyer, the current administration's police liaison, got him a sweet deal of life in prison.

_ Officer Charles Cassidy, assassinated by a baby-faced monster who will plead for the mercy he denied his victim and whose family tried to help him avoid apprehension.

_ And Stephen Liczbinski, killed by three thugs with empty holes where their hearts should have been.

The monsters behind the execution of Officer Liczbinski have rap sheets you could paper the walls with, but were sent back again and again into the communities they polluted like sewage.

Blame the judges who sentenced them, the lawyers who navigated them through the justice system, and the social workers and parole boards who said they deserved second and third and fourth chances.

AND BLAME the people who think that roughing up a suspect rises to the same level as murdering a police officer. Whose knee-jerk reaction is to blame the "pigs" while giving a pass to the true swine.

Another hero is gone. His brothers in heaven await him with open arms, beside the gate with St. Michael, patron of police.

But it's a sure bet that while his earthly body is being carried to its final resting place, someone somewhere will be watching a tape of three thugs getting roughed up.

And will say a prayer for the wrong people. *

Christine M. Flowers is a lawyer.

E-mail cflowers1961@yahoo.com.