Over the last half dozen years or so, New York's various police departments -- city, transit, housing -have compiled a distressing record of questionable actions that have fed suspicion among blacks that their lives and security are valued less than those of whites. Examples of such actions include the police shooting death of an elderly, emotionally unstable black grandmother during police attempts to evict her from her apartment and the false arrest of black and hispanic men by transit police. Such actions have increased racial tension in the city, fostered cynicism about the police, and increased black antipathy toward police and sympathy for criminal offenders. Despite the civil rights movement and affirmative action and other initiatives, blacks still are not treated as first-class citizens by police. While the injustice is reason for outrage, the lost opportunity may be more important. At this point in history the responsible adult segments of the black population should be allies with police in ending the plague of black-on-black crime. However, this alliance cannot be struck because responsible black adults must be concerned about the danger police pose to all black citizens.