I'm sorry, but if you want to hang out with convicted felons during your free time, you need to be in a business other than law enforcement.

An African-American Chicago Police officer contends that a rule barring cops from associating with criminals discriminates against black officers.

The officer argues the rule is more restrictive on black officers because of the disproportionate number of African Americans who have had contact with the criminal justice system.

Last month, a supervisor warned Officer Sylvia Broadway she might have violated department rules -- asking if she knew that a man driving her car was a convicted felon.

Broadway, a 13-year veteran in the Wentworth District, said she was unaware the man was a felon until she asked him later.

The department is enforcing a "policy that appears to have bias overtones against a specific racial group, namely African Americans," she said to the supervisor in a memo. "It is as though a deliberate trap has been set for African-American police officers."

Some 8.4 percent of all black males ages 25 to 29 were in the U.S. prison population, according to a 2004 Bureau of Justice Statistics report, compared with 2.5 percent of Hispanic males that age, and 1.2 percent of white males.

Actually, the policy is racially neutral and based upon conduct and status, not race.

And if you want to find a solution to this problem, it might consist in having African-American men stop committing felonies -- and for the African-American community to quit tolerating and excusing it.