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The more people Inglewood cops shoot and kill, the more evident it becomes why the Police Chief, Jacqueline Seabrooks, had so much trouble being hired away from the Santa Monica Police Dept.
After the fourth fatal shooting, by the supposed good guys, in the last four months, Chief Seabrooks made exactly the wrong move.
She is doing her best imitation of Howdy Doody after Buffalo Bob died. Raging silence.
The Los Angeles Times reported this morning that Chief Seabrooks has clammed up.
Just the opposite of what a nervous, angry community needs.
The lady is not talking calls. The lady is not answering questions. The lady is not issuing statements.
These successive gaffes can only make communities where she applied and was rejected heave relief sighs.
Ducking a Bullet, You Might Say
Inglewood residents must be reassured that a strong arm is in charge, that her officers have been lectured and warned, and that the strong arm is keeping a scrupulously tight eye on every wiggle and breath within the department.
If I were the City Manager and she had behaved this way in a crisis situation, she would have been fired.
Unless Chief Seabrooks is a cigar store Indian, she had better be out on the street — first visible, then meeting with city leaders, pledging to them and ordinary citizens that she is monitoring by the minute, that a transparent internal review is under way, and that Inglewood streets are guarded and safe, before and after dark.
Her Goose, or Job, Is Cooked
Instead, for Ms. Seabrooks, it is Ted Cooke time. She must have gotten too close to the desk of the retired Police Chief the two times she was interviewed in Culver City.
At the time of the third shooting, in July, she was reported out of town, and, I believe, out of the country. Three fatal shootings in May, June and July did not impress her as a matter urgent enough to rush home.
On Sunday, at least she showed up.
I had to check my watch. She looked as disorganized as if she had been rousted from bed at 3 in the morning not 3 in the afternoon.
Unless she is under private contract to another boob out in the desert, Chief Seabrooks’ prime responsibility is to the fearful residents who, from this distance, seem to have been turned into random fodder by Inglewood police officers.
Thank You, Council Members
“No, thanks,” the smart City Council of Culver City decided both times Chief Seabrooks came here hoping to land her first chief appointment.
Judging by the way she is (mis)performing, her second chief appointment will be far away, on Pluto or in a town of 10 persons in Maine — someplace where they never have heard of the internet or Inglewood.
Here is a dessert situation for the Police Chief. A black woman, she resembles a significant number of Inglewood residents, meaning that if she takes firm public control of the crisis, she uis likely to collect new believers and followers fast.
It is almost too late.
