The National Association for Equal Justice in America and its president, Royce Esters, have already scheduled a meeting for Tuesday with the assistant director of the FBI to bring federal attention to the April 25 slaughter of surrendering robbery suspect, Lejoy Grissom, by the Culver City police. Esters, et al., are right to do so, as we need not wait for Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley’s officials to complete their investigation and issue their findings as to the justification of Grissom’s killing. We already know what their findings will be: Grissom is dead because it was Grissom’s fault and the Culver City cop who killed him with three blasts in the chest with a submachine gun was a courageous law enforcement officer who carried out his duties properly.

We know this will be Cooley’s finding because this is what he always says after completing investigations into police shootings of citizens. Cooley always finds that the police did nothing wrong, and despite vehement damaging accounts of Grissom’s killing by a highly creditable eyewitness — which faults the police — this shooting is set to go the way of all the others.

Remember how the Inglewood Police struck terror in that city with a virtual monthly killing spree during which they gunned down unarmed citizens in the streets and in their homes with no provocation? The circumstances of each of these killings were supposedly investigated and reviewed by Cooley and a determination was to be rendered as to the culpability of the Inglewood police killers. The Inglewood cops killed five Black and Hispanic men. Cooley was supposed to have conducted five investigations. Have five Inglewood cops gone to jail? No. Cooley never promulgated his findings on those killings to the general public and obviously reported on the matters only to the offending police department, otherwise we would know and we would have had his head. In fact, a grotesque videotape of the cops killing an innocent, unarmed man on one of Inglewood’s busiest streets was made which no one has seen except the cops, themselves, and the Inglewood City Council.

Even though it is his job to deal with them fairly and honestly, Cooley did nothing about the Inglewood cop killings and police business continued ignored and unabated in that city until Rep. Maxine Waters brought in federal officials to handle the problem. If it wasn’t for the intervention of the U.S. Justice Department, the lnglewood PD would still be blowing away residents at a steady pace.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Dave Dolson is leading the investigation into Grissom’s killing and all signs point to an ultimate finding no different than all those that preceded it. Dolson said his role is that of a “facts gatherer” for the county and once he’s gathered all the facts in the Grissom matter, he will present them to the D.A.’s office (Cooley) and they will determine what will happen next. Un Huh. In anticipation of the usual, Esters and NAEJA have chosen to bypass the ineffectual and go straight to the feds now, to seek justice for Grissom and to end the notorious brutality of machine gun-toting Culver City police against African-American men, regardless of what Cooley may or may not bother to say.

THIS AND THAT — The Legislative Black Caucus held an informational meeting at the State Capitol Wednesday in which the group began focusing on the challenges and opportunities for African-American students in California public schools. The Black legislators are examining a series of major policy issues of all aspects of education in an attempt to formulate a legislative approach toward eliminating the achievement gap of Black students.

Rep. Diane Watson will dedicate a federal postal facility honoring the late Johnny Grant, the longtime honorary mayor of Hollywood. Watson will lead the ceremony dedicating the Johnny Grant Hollywood Post Office on Monday at 11 a.m. at the post office at 1615 N. Wilcox Ave.

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education passed a resolution Tuesday honoring the district’s school crossing guards. The resolution declared Tuesday as School Crossing Guard Appreciation Day. That’s nice. I don’t recall the hundreds of heroic crossing guards ever having been mentioned by the school board before. I belatedly express my appreciation to them, as well.  

We sadly note the death of Robert ”Scottie” Scott, a member of the Charles Drew University family and a founding and integral member of Jazz at Drew. He died of cancer this week. May he rest in peace.

Both Rep. John Garamendi and Assembly Speaker John Perez applauded Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s withdrawal of support for the controversial Tranquillion Ridge project which would have established oil drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara. Over the strenuous objections of the California Assembly and of then-Lt. Gov. Garamendi, Schwarzenegger pushed forward approval of the oil drilling operation, claiming it would bring millions of badly needed dollars into the state’s coffers. After seeing the massive eco-damage oil drilling has done of the states abutting the Gulf of Mexico, Schwarzenegger has changed his mind and withdrawn his support of similar activity off California’s coast. Garamendi and Perez are, in effect, telling Schwarzenegger: “Na-na nee na-na! We told you so — everybody told you so! You are such an idiot!!”

KAREN BASS ROUNDUP — Supporters of Karen Bass for Congress are holding a week of intense campaign activities to help the Assembly speaker emeritus win the 33rd Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Watson. The activities are scheduled each day from May 8 through May 13 and will include neighborhood canvassing and telephoning. … At a rally Monday marking National Foster Care Month, Bass was honored by foster care organizations for her continued advocacy for foster youth. … And Bass was endorsed Tuesday by some key congressional leaders, to wit: House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (SC); House Democratic Caucus Chair John Larson (CT); California Democratic Congressional Chair Zoe Lofgren (CA) and House Education and Labor Committee Chair George Miller (CA), as well as seven other Democratic members of Congress.

AND FINALLY — I still can’t get my head around the fact that Councilman Bernard Parks arrived at the City Council meeting a minute too late to cast the vote needed to block the DWP rate increases. Parks said of his tardiness: ”I did not have any idea that there was a voting issue. If I’d known it earlier, I would have come here earlier.” Isn’t it his job to know what’s on the council agenda? Shouldn’t he at least keep up with what the council is doing? Isn’t that what we’re paying him for? Shouldn’t he be forced to resign for gross dereliction of duty? I think so. (Costing me all this money…)