The issues of brutality have, because of the reported psycho-sexual nature of the 70th Precinct policemen's vicious crime, seized upon the public's imagination to a degree that no previous brutality story has matched.

Instead of reaping political rewards for a much ballyhooed decline in New York's crime rate, the Mayor has come under fire for cozying up too much to police and for failing to curb the sometimes brutal macho posturing certain types of police are wont to do.

An editorial in Tuesday's New York Times, calls for "a strong independent agency that can monitor brutality and corruption on its own, thus prodding the internal system to fulfill its function." The picture emerging in the past few days, the editorial explains, shows that the New York City Police Department's internal controls (to monitor police brutality) "are vulnerable at all levels to laxity, incompetence and the tendency to misconduct until it explodes."

The Times says that the continuing disclosures in the Louima case underscores the lesson that must be drawn from a majority of the police brutality scandals of the Twentieth Century, namely, that "continued reliance on the internal controls now in place (to monitor police misbehavior) will almost certainly produce more horror stories in years to come."

What the Louima case suggests, explain editorialists, is that there is "a casual attitude" at the precinct toward violence.

Police regulations, particularly those which require logging calls and making a number of swift notifications whenever suspects have been arrested, appear to have been turned into mockery in the light of apparent 70th Precinct behavior.

Richard D. Emery, a New York civil rights lawyer, says that blaming Mayor Guiliani is unfair, but that he must be held to account for giving such persistent praise to police. Emery forecasts "little palpable change" after hearing Guiliani talk of appointing "another mayoral task force to 'study' and 'recommend.' "

In the meantime, cops on the beat in boroughs other than Brooklyn are hearing loudly the scorn of an angry public whose imagination has been caught and inflamed by the torturing of Abner Louima, reportedly inside the 70th Precinct stationhouse restroom.

Other issues include the offending lawmen's overt racism, murderous macho ritualizing, and homophobic commentary. While these issues fester just below the surface of public contempt for such behavior, even little children seem mesmerized by the stark nature of a rape that has been relentlessly portrayed through the inquisitive and often explosive New York media.

The police are hearing citizens' shouts, reminding them of their associate-policemen's crimes. Even 8-year olds taunt them about what they're going to do with the nightsticks they carry, a fact which, according to one officer, is hardest for honest officers to deal with.

"They look at us like an occupying force," said one housing police officer, describing the eerie feelings he's getting upon arrivals at crime scenes since Louima was assaulted. He can tell, he says, by the citizens' body language that they do not trust him.

Day after day, as further details of the atrocity are uncovered, police are taking more and more extra precautions entering neighborhoods. They are "skittish," according to one headline.