Opinion

The judge proclaims

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Edward McLaughlin’s recent remonstrance to Harlem for what the jurist implies is its acquiescence in gun violence would have rung a tad more true if he hadn’t himself arranged a sweet deal for the youthful gun moll at the center of the case.

McLaughlin this week handed down some hard time to five thugs recently convicted on drug and gun-trafficking charges.

He handed Jaquan Layne, leader of the so-called 137th Street Crew, 20-years-to-life for his role in the operation; other members got 15-to-life and 7 1/2-to-23-year terms.

So far, so good.

Then McLaughlin turned to the community in which Layne’s crew (many were members of the same family) was raised.

Noting a recent violent surge (244 shootings resulting in 34 deaths over 11 months), McLaughlin declared, “Gun violence in Harlem is the responsibility of that community.” He decried the lack of cooperation to help identify either shooting perpetrators or drug runners.

“When your relative is wounded but refuses to help identify the shooter,” McLaughlin added, “you know. . .that your relative likely is in a gang or is associated with drug-selling or both. . . If you do nothing, you are complicit.”

McLaughlin’s compelling words couldn’t possibly be more correct.

But what, then, to make of the jurist’s contradictory actions?

McLaughlin, after all, was the fellow who approved the plea bargain that saw Jaquan Layne’s girlfriend, Afrika Owes — charged with conspiracy weapons possession in the case — walk free with scarcely a penalty.

Owes, then a 16-year-old prep- school student acting under Layne’s orders, had carried at least three illegal handguns to her boyfriend’s brother.

True enough, McLaughlin came under heavy pressure to cut Owes slack from the same community he chided as being soft on guns this week.

The Abyssinian Baptist Church, for example, rushed to post $50,000 bail for Owes while she was being held on Rikers Island. That’s the church’s right, of course.

But it was McLaughlin who actually granted the bail — and he certainly could have chided the “community” for its implied acquiescence in gun violence at the time.

How many innocent New Yorkers might have been shot by a gun that Owes distributed? How many Abyssinian parishioners?

McLaughlin’s message was sound.

He should have been more precise in delivering it.