You know, after seeing him on O’Reilly and Hannity and Colmes, I was just starting to like Al Sharpton.

But there’s a chance his newest fiasco could wind up getting innocent people — maybe even NYPD officers — killed, for the sake of his brand of vigilante justice.

Here’s what I’m talking about, from AP:

Hundreds of angry people marched through Harlem on Saturday after the Rev. Al Sharpton promised to “close this city down” to protest the acquittals of three police detectives in the 50-shot barrage that killed a groom on his wedding day and wounded two friends. . . .

The rally at Sharpton’s office was followed by a 20-block march down Malcolm X Boulevard and then across 125th Street, Harlem’s main business thoroughfare, where some bystanders yelled out “Kill the police!” . . .

Sharpton urged people to return for a meeting this coming week “to plan the day that we will close this city down” with the kind of “massive civil disobedience” once led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. . . .

Sharpton didn’t say exactly how they would protest the acquittals of the officers who fired the 50 shots. He said Bell’s supporters could demonstrate all over the city, from Wall Street to the home of Justice Arthur Cooperman, who on Friday acquitted the three detectives after a nonjury trial.

You know, I hate to say this — and please don’t extract anything from the following statement that’s not relevant to the Sean Bell case — but it’s a good thing that most of the officers acquitted were black — only because that makes it impossible for Sharpton to turn this into a race issue, and drag us back fifty years. (Although it didn’t stop some protesters from shouting “KKK!” (here) How is black-on-black violence related to the KKK? Beats me.)

Can you imagine if it was a group of white cops that killed Sean Bell? Regardless of the outcome of the trial, Sharpton would be having people burn cars all over the city.

(Alternatively — imagine if it was a white guy that was gunned down by the police. Would Al be fighting for his “justice”? I think not.)

But, as it is, a judge listened to both sides of the story and found the three officers not guilty. If that sounds outrageous to you, then you probably haven’t heard both sides of the story: you probably only heard the “50 shots” thing. (And you probably shouldn’t think you have a better understanding of the case than the judge.)

The whole ordeal is terrible, and of course Sean Bell didn’t deserve to die, but punishing police officers for doing their job isn’t going to make anything better. I’m sure these men are terribly guilted as it is.

And I understand that Bell’s family is emotional, and they feel betrayed, but further violence or “massive civil disobedience” is only going to make the situation worse.

Where’s Mayor Giuliani when we need him?

Speaking of which, Mayor Bloomberg released a pretty good statement after the verdict (here), but he needs to release another statement strongly condemning the Rev. Sharpton’s proposed actions.