Like most single, straight men of color in the city, I love the sights and sounds of what — to me — is the most colorful of all New York spectacles . . . the Puerto Rican day parade.

Anyone who knows me doesn’t have to ask me where I’ll be on that Sunday of any year. But this year I just wasn’t feeling that vibe. I walked toward 5th Avenue, but detoured into Central Park. I could see the hoards of young men in their "gear" moving north through the park. I knew for some reason I wouldn’t have the fun I usually had in years past. I didn’t know at the time just how right my intuition was.

I was relaxing on the west side in the late afternoon when I heard the sounds of police sirens roaring out of the 72nd Street exit. I had no idea what the commotion was about and didn’t find out until I watched the news later that night. But the horror of what happened to the poor women and children, who were forced to run a depraved gauntlet of hands, water and humiliation, wouldn’t be fully realized to me for a couple of days until I saw the video tape.

I was disgusted.

As the son of a sweet mother, as the brother of a sister and the father of a daughter, I wished that I had been close so that maybe I could have done something. I know in my head, that I by myself would have probably accomplished nothing more than maybe getting myself introduced to the side and bottoms of some work boots and the knuckles of several hands. But in my heart I have to think that other outraged people would have joined in to help stop the madness that took place that afternoon.

If you say, "they were only touching them" or "what’s the big deal?," then you missed the point.

What if it were dark?

What if just one person in the mob had more sinister intentions?

Where would it have stopped?

I imagined my mother, sister and daughter in that mess and hoped for justice. I wondered why didn’t the photographers — or anyone else for that matter — do anything. While people want to blame the cops for their inaction, ultimately we, the people have a share in the blame for what happened, though we may not have chanted, stood by, walked away, or raised kids that are capable of all of the above.

If any of my sons did that, I would have been kicking their tails all the way to the police precinct. Among the many lessons in life my mother taught me, one of the first ones was to respect women. She once told me that since all men come from women, they should respect the vessels of their own creation. Even as a child her words were powerful and her logic was crystal.

The men who treat women badly aren’t strong, but rather filled with weakness and cowardice . . . characteristics that unfortunately will no doubt resurface at our parks, pools and other summer events. Hopefully if and when it does happen, "Real Men" will intervene.

What sickens me even further is that my industry allowed the men who videotaped the melee . . . who were apathetic and maybe even instigating the attacks. . . to profit from their action, or rather inaction.

It reminded me of that incident in Broad Channel a few years ago, when the firemen and cop in blackface mimicked the dragging death of a black man in Texas. What many of you don’t know is that city records suggest that the photographer...who was a TV news producer... missed the first little demonstration of stupidity by these guys and encouraged them to do more of it so she could get it on tape.

Her network rewarded her for perpetuating racism with pats on the back, and an Emmy nomination for what is considered "staging," a no-no in our business.

But no one would have seen what happened without it.

Don’t ask me to explain or excuse it. . . it’s just the way of the world.

It’s ironic that the only way these guys in Central Park would have been caught is by the images that were captured at the expense of intervention.

Cops afraid of being charged with brutality will get into trouble for staying away.

But the men who refused to prevent assaults on women inadvertently aided in the capture of suspects.

The two-sided swords of our society seem to cut us to pieces sometimes.

— Gary Anthony Ramsay is a weekend anchor and journalist on the all-news cable station NY1 and a long-time resident of Queens.