After Mayor Bloomberg had some criticism for Brooklyn judge Evelyn Laporte, who let suspected cop shooter Lamont Pride walk, he took some heat on his own, including from Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes and from Times columnist Jim Dwyer for not having a real idea (in their view) about the way the justice system is supposed to work.

The mayor struck a far more subdued tone in his weekly radio show this morning, saying that everyone was to blame for a system that allowed someone with such a long criminal record to walk, and lamenting what he termed the “turnstile justice” practiced in the nation.

“When you read about people who get arrested for serious crimes, it is very seldom they don’t have a long rap sheet. Even the victim who was getting robbed, I’m pretty sure he had a long rap sheet. We have this turnstile justice,” the mayor told host John Gambling.

In a way, the mayor sounded more like his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, who made tough on crime measures a hallmark of his tenure. This mayor has focused equally on keeping the crime rate, sometimes through controversial measures like the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program, but has generally tried to dial down a lot of the rhetoric on criminal justice issues.

Not today.

“We call it a Corrections Department,” he said.  ”We don’t correct anything.”

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