When I first heard radio shock-jock Don Imus’ comments about NFL defensive back Adam “Pacman” Jones, I just knew Imus couldn’t have meant what I thought he meant.

For those of you not aware, the exchange between Imus and sportscaster Wolf Blitzer went something like this. Blitzer mentioned that Jones has been arrested six times since the Tennessee Titans drafted him in 2005.

“What color is he?” Imus asked Blitzer.

“He’s African-American,” Blitzer answered.

“There you go,” Imus said. “Now we know.”

At first I thought the same thing Imus’ critics are now thinking: That Imus implied that Jones, being black, had a kind of natural proclivity for crime. But I figured that couldn’t possibly be it. Imus may be a shock jock, but the man isn’t stupid. He’s got to know there are plenty of white guys in jails and prisons.

Who comprises the membership of prison gangs like the Aryan Brotherhood and Nazi Lowriders? Not blacks or Latinos. In Maryland, there exists another white prison gang called Dead Man Inc., but that group’s agenda is different from that of the Aryan Brotherhood and the Nazi Lowriders. Dead Man Inc. members have formed an alliance with the Black Guerilla Family prison gang.

Hey, don’t kill the messenger, people. I’m only telling you what I’ve heard.

The day after Imus’ comments first hit the news, he took to the airwaves to explain what he meant. Imus said he was merely pointing out how police harass and arrest black men for no good reason. Jones, Imus said, was one of those black men.

That may be open to some dispute. Jones is the knucklehead who got arrested for brawling in a nightclub. I’d heard of the incident, but was sketchy on the details. One night as I was giving my son a lift home, he filled me in on the details.

“He was in a club making it rain with his money,” my son told me, “then he wanted his money back. He was walking up to guys saying ‘Hey, can I get that hundred back from you?’”

Someone out there in BlackAmericaweb.com land, tell me this isn’t true. Please tell me this is an urban legend. Please tell me this Negro was not that stupid. Because if he was, then I can understand why cops have arrested him six times in three years. It’s not because he’s black. It’s because he’s an idiot.

Yeah, I was all set to get down on Imus when he offered his explanation, but I really couldn’t condemn the man before that. So what if he was saying that blacks are naturally prone to crime? Don’t many of us believe that?

I urge you to buy or rent Janks Morton’s documentary, “What Black Men Think.” In the film, Morton tries to lay to rest, finally, this notion that there are more black men in prison than in college.

Morton asked different groups of black folks the question, “Do you think there are more black men in prison or in college?” Morton’s much braver than I am. By even broaching this question he was playing Russian roulette with his sanity, and the revolver had bullets in all six chambers.

Not one black person answered Morton’s question correctly. All said there are more black men in prison than in college. Morton said census figures show the opposite. And for black men ages 18 to 24 -- the age you expect young men to be in college -- Morton added that there are four times more black men in college than in prison.

But Imus doesn’t need the “black folks think the same thing” defense, which he tried to use after he called black women on Rutgers University basketball team “nappy-headed ‘hos.” This time Imus needs to only point out some of the characters accusing him of being a racist.

One of them is New York City Councilman Charles Barron, who offered the comment that a man as openly racist as Imus was in need of therapy.

Umm, therapy. Isn’t Barron the same guy who said in 2002, at the Millions for Reparations rally that drew dozens, that he wanted to slap a white person for his mental health?

Barron certainly did make that racist rant. Now he’s calling Imus a racist? I don’t recall Imus saying he’d like to slap a black person for his mental health.

I guess the old saying is true. In some matters, you just have to consider the source.