The more people criticize Fernando Ferrer, a Democratic mayoral candidate, for his flip-flop on the matter of the shooting of Amadou Diallo, the more we sense that someone ought to salute Mr. Ferrer for staking out the right position in the face of critics who want to divide New York on racial lines.

Asked Tuesday at a meeting of the Sergeants Benevolent Association whether he thought the 1999 shooting of Diallo by police was a crime or a tragic accident, Mr. Ferrer said, “I don’t believe it was a crime. Do I believe there was an attempt by many to overindict? Sure.”

One person who criticized Mr. Ferrer’s comments was the district attorney of Bronx County, Robert Johnson, who indicted the four officers who shot Diallo for second-degree murder, a charge of which they were subsequently acquitted by a jury. Mr. Johnson’s time would be better spent honing his trial skills and winning convictions against genuine criminals, rather than re-litigating 5-year-old cases via political press releases.

Rep. Charles Rangel had an incredibly cynical reaction to Mr. Ferrer’s remarks to the sergeants. “What he doesn’t know,” Mr. Rangel told the Associated Press, “is that they don’t live in the city, and it’s a shame when you lose credibility when you can’t pick up anything politically for it.”

Credit Mr. Ferrer for recognizing, even if Mr. Rangel has forgotten, that the sergeants of the New York Police Department are good for much more than just voting in New York City elections. They are a critical part of the police force that protects all New Yorkers from criminals and terrorists. If Mr. Ferrer is elected mayor, he will need them as allies to keep New York City safe. An indication by Mr. Ferrer that he does not regard their colleagues as murderers is a useful gesture in that direction.

The others who are piling on Mr. Ferrer – such as Council Member Charles Barron and the Reverend Al Sharpton – are career racial dividers. In order to be a successful mayor, Mr. Ferrer will have to learn to stand up to them, anyway. So this is an important little moment in the campaign that is gathering steam.

Some have criticized Mr. Ferrer for only voicing his comments on the Diallo shooting now and not five years ago, when he was busy getting himself arrested in a Sharpton-led protest against NYPD tactics. But we are in the camp that welcomes politicians who respect a jury’s verdict and who, over time, come to appreciate that the police usually aren’t the enemy of law-abiding New Yorkers but their allies. That this last view is a controversial position in the Democratic Party in New York City in 2005 is doubtless one of the reasons that the Republican Party has won the last three mayoral elections in this city.