Based on the press conference yesterday held by the Baton Rouge Police Department, the cops certainly don’t.

In case you missed it, here’s what happened…

A dozen people were injured in a Baton Rouge nightclub shooting, authorities in Louisiana said Sunday.

One of the victims is in critical condition, police said. No arrests have been made, but police believe the early morning attack was “targeted.”

“This was not a random act of violence, based on the preliminary investigating efforts,” Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul said at a news conference Sunday afternoon. “We believe that this was a targeted event, where someone was specifically targeted and others were injured in that process.”

Three Baton Rouge police officers were nearby when the shots were fired around 1:30 a.m. and responded to the Dior Bar & Lounge. They administered life-saving aid until emergency medical technicians arrived.

“We believe their immediate response prevented further injuries,” Paul said.

Although police have some leads, Paul urged anyone else with information about shooting to come forward.

“There is someone who knows something — do the right thing. You can save the next incident because it is obvious that this person has total disregard for life,” Paul said.

Police did not say how many of the people shot were targeted. Paul declined to comment on how many shooters opened fire.

“I do understand the interest and everybody wanting information, but remember … we have to get this right,” Paul said about the ongoing investigation. “And sometimes, getting it right means I can’t give information right now.”

The venue for this outbreak of retribution, or whatever it was, was the Dior Bar and Lounge on Bennington Avenue, just off College Drive. It’s the building that used to be the Semolina’s Restaurant, and it’s been a succession of things since, none of which has lasted long. Now it’s kind of a Player’s Ball type of place where every weekend there’s one of these promoted, themed “event” parties.

You don’t have to watch this whole thing. A couple of minutes’ worth and you’ll get the picture.

So this is a bit of the urban downtown life which has made its way to the southern part of Baton Rouge, within easy walking distance of famous hangouts like Gino’s, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Drago’s and Tio Javi’s. And late Saturday night you had a heaping helping of “downtown” showing up in that neighborhood.

The look on Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul’s face as he spoke at yesterday’s press conference was telling. Because as of right now it doesn’t sound like the BRPD has any leads about the multiple shooters who showed up at the Dior Bar and shot the place up, injuring a dozen people but not – thank God – killing any.

He’s begging people to call Crimestoppers and give the cops information about the shooters. Hopefully somebody will. But here’s the problem – anybody who does is taking his or her life in hand, because villains who will show up at a bar full of people and start blasting away, in what Paul called a “targeted” attack rather than a random one, would have absolutely no problem with enforcing the old line that “snitches get stitches.”

We’re going to choose to be encouraged that Paul said almost nothing else about the shooting during his press conference. He didn’t offer a description of the shooters – obviously they’re overwhelmingly likely black males, though Paul said not a word about that – he didn’t disclose what kind of weapon was used, he didn’t describe the injuries the victims suffered, he didn’t describe the venue or the event.

These were pretty basic things, some of which could have been gleaned from sources other than BRPD. And yet Paul was mum about them at a press conference to discuss the shooting.

We’re going to call that strategic, and say it’s a possible indication that the cops know more than they’re letting on and hopefully we’ll see some arrests in the next couple of days.

But if that’s not the case, and maybe even if it is, it just proves that Baton Rouge has gone completely to seed.

The idiot national news media is trying to lump the Dior shooting in with the one at a Korean nightclub in Monterey Park, California, outside of Los Angeles. What they have in common is people partying at a bar and then getting shot, but not a lot more than that. In Monterey Park there was a deranged lunatic who ended up shooting himself when the cops caught him.

This is almost certainly a gang-related atrocity. Baton Rouge is now overrun with gang violence and turf wars. Apparently the Dior Bar is mixed up in that in some way.

And the BRPD will not talk about gangs. They’d just as soon ignore crime in town as take on the subject of the gangs who’ve multiplied and metastasized in this city.

Which is how you have people getting shot dead in front of the J. Alexander restaurant on Bluebonnet Boulevard just in front of the Mall of Louisiana. Or people getting shot on Essen Lane. Or gunshots ringing out in Hundred Oaks. Places where the gang-bangers don’t live, but since they’ve got free rein all over town they’re exporting that “downtown” life.

The Dior Bar is almost certainly going out of business now. It probably should. What does this incident do to the other establishments nearby? Will they pick up and move further south to places where the gangsters aren’t conducting turf wars? Do they just sit helplessly as the patrons decide it isn’t worth chancing a trip and stop coming?

Violent crime is like an Ebola virus for legitimate business. It cannot survive when customers aren’t safe.

And for all of his shortcomings Murphy Paul knows this. He knows that BRPD, which has all but lost the battle for Baton Rouge’s streets, can’t go without solving this brazen crime. Not after failing to solve the senseless murder of Allie Rice six months on.

A city serious about solving its problems wouldn’t tolerate leadership like this and Paul’s boss, mayor-president Sharon Weston Broome, would be facing demands for her resignation amid an all-out housecleaning. But Baton Rouge isn’t such a city. Not right now, not anymore.

And as shocking as that weekend mass shooting was, it or something like it is almost certain to happen again.

Meanwhile the organizers of the effort to incorporate the city of St. George in the southern reaches of East Baton Rouge Parish where this kind of thing is a bit less likely to happen are staring at Broome and Paul with looks of disapproval on their faces. Their efforts to stop St. George, to deny some in town the opportunity to build a safe place where you can go out on a Saturday night without getting shot, don’t look all that responsible anymore.