MAKING DEMANDS — Last week’s Inglewood City Council meeting ended with a community forum at which human rights, justice, anti-police violence coalitions and unaligned but otherwise outraged citizens gathered to force the council members to take control of their police department and end the department’s serial killing of Inglewood residents. In the wake of the police killing of Marcus Smith, the department’s fifth and latest victim, the Human Rights Advocacy presented a series of seven demands to the council to make their city safe for their residents, which include: Give Inglewood’s Citizen Police Oversight Commission the power to determine discipline for officers; give the commission power to coordinate and initiate investigations concerning police shootings; hire a truly independent agency to conduct investigations of police shootings; and provide families with financial assistance to bury loved ones killed by police officers. Also: go on record supporting the repeal of the California Police Bill of Rights; pressure the district attorney’s office to prosecute police officers who shoot people unjustifiably; and immediately suspend the officers at the scene of the Marcus Smith shooting.

While all seven demands are worthy, the sixth one about pressing the D.A. to prosecute cops who shoot people “unjustifiably” is pointless. After all, it is the D.A. who determines whether a killing by a cop is “justified,” and District Attorney Steve Cooley has already determined that the killing of the first four Inglewood citizens by the city’s cops were “justified” insofar as no cop has been prosecuted yet for killing anybody. I also believe it would be useful if a demand were made for speedy, transparent investigations of all police shootings and that the public and the press receive complete reports on the findings of those investigations in a timely manner from the Inglewood Police Department and from the D.A.’s office. They need to prove to the people that the killings were “justified.” Five people have been killed in the past couple of years by cops and the only thing Inglewood’s police chief has said after each one is: “A thorough investigation will be made blah, blah, blah.” I haven’t seen the results of any of those “thorough investigations.” Have you?

LEGISLATIVE MATTERS — Recognizing that every California student may not want to go to college, state senators on both sides of the aisle found something they could agree on last week when they passed — by a vote of 32-2 — Senate Bill 381, a bill authored by Sen. Rod Wright requiring high schools to offer more career tech courses. Remember, back in the day when kids actually graduated from high school, how high schools (such as mine, Fremont) offered cosmetology, auto mechanics, horticulture and other such courses for students who dreamed of those kinds of careers? Everybody didn’t want to be a lawyer then, and I doubt if every kid wants to be a lawyer now.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to actively seek and support federal legislation to repeal portions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that limit the authority of state and local governments to regulate cell towers and related wireless facilities on the basis of their health and environmental effects. This is certainly good news to the residents of a Windsor Hills/View Park neighborhood who have been fighting the erection of a T-Mobile cell tower in their midst for almost two years. The supervisors’ vote follows similar action taken last month by the LAUSD Board of Education.

RIDING THE RAILS — Following three separate back-to-back-to-back Blue Line accidents late last month, which left a male pedestrian dead and a woman trapped in a truck in South L.A. and another woman critically injured downtown, rail safety advocates are requesting a congressional investigation and hearings on the 18-year-old light rail operation in the city and expansion of the system into more complex communities in the Southland. Leading a coalition of several community groups in a fight for rail safety in the city, Damien Goodmon noted: “The three accidents on the Blue Line, which travels at street level between 35 to 55 mph in dense urban areas, bring the train’s death count up to 93 from over 826 accidents.” He called it “the deadliest light rail train in the nation.”

In other developments, acting on a motion by Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Don Knabe and Santa Monica Mayor Pam O’Conner, the MTA Board last week allocated $5 million for environmental reviews of a project that would connect the Crenshaw Transit Corridor with rail lines into the South Bay. The action begins the process of bringing light rail into the 2nd Supervisorial district that would extend into such South Bay communities as El Segundo and Redondo Beach.

THIS AND THAT — Alysia Stanton will become the first African-American woman to ever be ordained a rabbi Saturday during ordination rites in Cincinnati. Then she will become the first African-American ever to lead a majority White congregation when she reports for rabbinical duties as head of Congregation Bayt Shalom in Greenville, N.C. … Movin’ on up.

Councilwoman Janice Hahn honored Karl Stephens with a Civilian Career Service Award in City Hall the other day. Stephens, an active member of the Watts community, is the facilities director at Nickerson Gardens who devotes much of his personal time to Nickerson’s youth programs, especially the Moonlight Basketball program, and with the Watts Gang Task Force. He was instrumental in setting up the first Watts Community Carnival last year. Kudos to Karl.

My neighbors, Judy Johnson and Paige and Paul Lahaise, are now celebrities, dogged by autograph seekers, since they appeared on the KTLA News May 23 denouncing the DWP-installed spotlights that shine on their property every night and rob them of their sleep and general well-being. The TV station’s news van came to our neighborhood to report our ongoing struggle to turn off those lights and bring back the night, and the three of them of did a good job. Maybe a neighborhood press conference is in order. It was KNBC News that reported recently a Brentwood neighborhood’s fight with DWP to turn off the street lights that shine there all night and all day, 24/7. DWP officials seem to have a light fetish they can’t seem to satisfy.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference joined the Muslim Public Affairs Council and several Asian organizations at a press conference Friday to recognize the designation of Dec. 17 as “Day of Inclusion,” which was created as such by the recent passage of Assembly Concurrent Resolution 76 authored by Assemblyman Mike Eng. The new “Day of Inclusion” is to be an expression of California residents’ commitment to break down cultural barriers, appreciate differences, enrich cultural diversity and further racial, religious and cultural tolerance. A history lesson: On Dec. 17, 1943, the Magnuson Act repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which marked a turning point regarding American society’s harsh treatment and attitudes toward immigration and immigrants.

All the Black politicians in Southern California are said to be amassing at USC Thursday for the Urban New Media Panel’s fourth annual Beyond Broadcast forum, at which they will discuss a variety of topics under the general theme “Embracing the Digital Renaissance.” The event will be held in the Annenberg School of Communication from 2 to 4 p.m.

AND FINALLY — I got a call from Najee Ali the other day. He said he’ll be out of prison in three months — maybe sooner, if the governor releases nonviolent prisoners early in an attempt to save the state some money. At any rate, I told him he has to hurry up and come out of there ’cause we’ve got a lot of work to do.