I didn't get very far Thursday at City Hall in Inglewood, the town whose public officials keep filling the pages of this newspaper, often without saying a word.
Mayor Roosevelt Dorn, or someone at his house, hung up the phone when one of my colleagues called the other day to ask about a string of fatal shootings involving officers from the city's Police Department.
Of course, a low profile may be the best move for the mayor, given his own troubles. Dorn has pleaded not guilty to charges of conflict of interest and misappropriation of $500,000 in public funds, money that came from a below-market loan program he had voted in favor of.
Before visiting the mayor's office Thursday, I stopped by the Police Department and tried to get a few words out of Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks.
I knew it was a long shot going in. She seemed to have developed lockjaw about the officer-involved shootings, which have left four people dead in four months.
Seabrooks couldn't yet discuss those cases, I was told by Lt. Michael McBride, a guy I've dealt with before and liked.
Why not?
Investigations and inquiries are still underway, said McBride, and there are "personnel issues" to consider, among other things.
What's the word I'm looking for? Oh, yeah.
Hogwash.
I'm aware that formal investigations of officer-involved shootings take time. But that doesn't mean a police department shouldn't immediately lay out the basic facts of what happened.
That's what the LAPD and countless other agencies do, if for no other reason than to avoid the appearance that it has something to hide.
Maybe the officers in each Inglewood case will be cleared in the end, I don't know. And McBride promised the chief would be meeting with one of my colleagues later Thursday to discuss the cases. She eventually did, and said seven officers have been placed on administrative leave.
But we shouldn't have to wait so long for the names of the officers who fired at least 40 shots Sunday, killing a homeless man who had a fake gun. State law makes their names a matter of public record.
And it would have been nice to know more about why Officer Brian Ragan, who was involved in the still-sketchy May 11 killing of an unarmed 19-year-old, was back on duty July 21, when he was involved in the killing of a 38-year-old man in what may have been a case of mistaken identity.
