Stu Bykofsky: Nutter's tirade on mayhem mobs needed to be said

WITH AN angry blast (following earlier ones that didn't pinpoint race), an impassioned Mayor Nutter said what no white person could (safely) say: Philadelphia's flash-mayhem mobs are black and black parents must accept a role in stopping them.

It was his Bill Cosby moment. By playing the race card in an unexpected way, Nutter can expect a lashing from the black apolog- I mean academics who are more interested in justifying bad behavior than in condemning it.

This nonacademic white boy knows the vast majority of African-Americans are law-abiding and hardworking. Bad behavior by a tiny number of blacks shouldn't fuel fear or disrespect for the vast majority - but I know too many white Philadelphians will do that.

"You damaged your own race," Nutter said before his home congregation at Mount Carmel Baptist Church, knowing the people in the pews are not the problem. The mayor invited coverage because his message - greeted by rousing applause - was aimed over the Baptist heads in West Philly to a larger audience.

If you want other people "to respect you and not be afraid when they see you walking down the street, then leave the innocent people" alone, Nutter said.

He didn't say "innocent white people," but, as far as I can tell, none of the people attacked - in Fairmount, in the subway concourse or at 15th and Walnut - were black. How are my paleface brothers and sisters supposed to feel now when a group of black teens approaches?

When the NAACP's Jerry Mondesire concedes this is a black problem, reality has overtaken political correctness and excuse-manufacturing. The black mobsters do damage their own race, but they are as indifferent to that as are white marauders who are burning, looting and beating in (no longer Great) Britain.

So we'll have more crackdowns on bad mob behavior, tighter curfews (punishing the many for the sins of the few, but what else is new?), prosecuting bad kids and fining parents, assuming the wham-bam daddies can be found. Nutter also condemned shirking by absent black fathers.

He called for better parenting and the help of other adults. You don't get that app off the shelf at the Apple store.

You can get it on the street, however. That brings me to the Brotherhood of Huntingdon Street, a group I wrote about in 2007, after meeting them at the 10,000 Man organizational meeting. The 10,000 Man effort crashed after takeoff, but the Huntingdon Brotherhood is still flying.

Organized as a nonprofit - it has the paperwork and holds meetings - and headquartered in the 2500 block of N. Colorado, they are 20 caring black men, including some ex-cons who can "preach" to inner-city kids more effectively than an arrow-straight mayor. Mostly in their 40s and 50s, they try to steer neighborhood kids away from quick choices that lead to long stretches in a cellblock.

They aim at 8- to 13-year-olds, stepping into their lives before the gang-bangers and dope dealers do. Brotherhood secretary Jamil Ali, a clinical supervisor at Girard Medical Center, agrees with the mayor's sentiments, but says the neighborhood kids need help. "There's something going wrong that isn't being attended to."

The Brotherhood works to get "hope back into the community," Ali says, with summer youth camps, cash for academic achievement, help with job readiness and vocational training, mentoring, a summer basketball league, even theater outings.

Dipping into their own pockets, they work with 200 kids and always try to involve the family. If Philly had more Brotherhoods, we'd have fewer mayhem mobs.

It starts with the will of a few strong black men. I know these guys. If you can help with time or bucks, let me know and I'll let them know.