Is City of Inglewood Conspiring with ‘Inglewood Today’ to Slander an Inglewood Journalist?

INSIDE INGLEWOOD-A private, hand-written note that Inglewood Assistant City Manager/Chief Information Officer Michael Falkow gave to Inglewood Today owner Willie Brown during an official Inglewood city council meeting may be proof that a conspiracy has been arranged between Inglewood city council members and Brown.

The note directed Brown to make a statement about the editor-in-chief of the Morningside Park Chronicle, a community newspaper that has been critical of the mayor’s policy, behavior and many misleading statements. (Full disclosure: That editor is also this journalist.)  

Falkow was captured on video leaving his seat to hand the note to Brown during the city council meeting. The note, which was seen by many people attending the April 15 daytime meeting, told Brown to approach the podium and “say Flemming is planning…” something that was unseen owing to Brown’s left thumb quickly covering the rest of the sentence before he hid it behind a city council agenda he was holding.

Reached via text in the moments after the note had been read by audience members, Falkow responded via text, “Hi, Randall…what makes you think the note had anything to do with you?”

Falkow did not respond directly to the answer this journalist thereafter sent: “It has my name on it.”

Brown did not get up to speak. It is presumed that as he held a cell phone in his hand and looked at it a few times after the text conversation with Falkow, he may have been warned to remain seated and silent.

The mayor, who has of late made unprovoked personal statements aimed at disparaging the Chronicle, tends to use his time during closing comments to make the remarks. At times, the mayor misrepresents facts in what appears to be an attempt to defame the Chronicle and its editor-in-chief. 

Tuesday’s meeting, for instance, had the mayor stating that in Inglewood there were only 14 murders in Inglewood in 2013 when the LA County Coroner, the LA Times and the Chronicle has proof of 17 murders in 2013. (It is not unusual for the mayor to ignore Robert’s Rules of Order by personally addressing audience members critical of his policy and behavior in what many feel is a desire to intimidate residents from speaking out about the city’s many problems—including the record-breaking murder rate for 2014.)

After the meeting, Falkow was asked to discuss the note. He did not make himself available for comment for many minutes, then appeared to be evasive when finally approached a second time. 

When asked why he handed a note to Brown that discussed directing Brown to say something about this journalist, Falkow only replied, “So what if I did? There’s nothing wrong with it.” When asked again, an Inglewood police officer intervened and forcefully told this reporter to go away.

At the same time, Brown was whisked away by the mayor through the private chamber doors and into the mayor’s office. Audience members remained for a while afterward, but Brown was not seen for the rest of the day.

The day before, Brown had for the first time ever called the Chronicle to state he was set to publish a story about this journalist. In that message, Brown used a notable term that on Thursday, April 10 had also been used by Melanie McDade-Dickens, the Senior Assistant to Mayor James T. Butts.

Brown had arrived late to the city council meeting and refused to ask the question he mentioned in the telephone message the day before. He refused to talk at all to this journalist as he rushed inside and took a front row seat just a few feet from the mayor.

That notable term, “reverend,” was not explained to this journalist. McDade-Dickens used it when she was attempting to have this editor removed from the “state of the city” event at which Butts was the keynote speaker on April 10 at the Forum in Inglewood. 

The Director of Forum Security, Bill Thompson of Madison Square Garden Company, did not comply with McDade-Dickens’ enthusiastic and inexplicable demands and was herself made to move away from the area where this author stood. 

This reporter was personally invited by Forum VP and General Manager Nick Spampanato to move about the main area but was prevented from doing so by Thompson owing to McDade-Pickens’ repeated and angry untruths regarding this reporter.

Much of the Forum incident was caught on video.

McDade-Dickens is often seen with Butts at parties and non-city events. At one, a funeral, she disrupted the exit of people at the end of it to call this reporter names in an unprovoked verbal assault that neither Butts nor nearby Inglewood city council members attempted to stop.

In recent months, Brown has published libelous articles about the Chronicle. He was also captured on video making highly slanderous remarks about this journalists’ character on April 8 in the Inglewood city council chambers in the presence of the mayor, council members, Falkow and other elected officials—none of whom attempted to stop Brown’s commentary.

Prior to becoming mayor of Inglewood in 2011, Butts spent 19 years as an Inglewood police officer.

McDade-Dickens was Butts’ campaign manager when he ran for mayor of Inglewood in 2010.

Brown is noted on Butts’ campaign contributions sheet, called a California Form 460, in the Schedule E as being a paid “campaign consultant.”

Bill Thompson is a retired Inglewood police sergeant.

Owing to the recent events at the Forum and Inglewood city hall, it is expected that the April 17 edition of Inglewood Today will contain another “article” disparaging the Chronicle, its editor-in-chief and/or the many residents who contribute to it.

Brown, Butts, McDade-Pickens and Thompson did not respond to requests for comment via telephone and e-mail.

 

(Randall Fleming is a veteran journalist and magazine publisher. He has worked at and for the New York Post, the Brooklyn Spectator and the Los Feliz Ledger. He is currently editor-in-chief at the Morningside Park Chronicle, a monthly newspaper based in Inglewood, CA and on-line at www.MorningsideParkChronicle.com)

-cw

  

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 12 Issue 32

Pub: Apr 18, 2014