This is an opinion column.

The bright lights are on, Hoover. Pointing at you. Right at you.

And you’re sitting there behind the table sweating. Sputtering, changing your story like – like you’re guilty.

Whether you are or you’re not.

I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt. Because there’s an awful lot about the Thanksgiving night shooting at the Riverchase Galleria nobody knows but you. Still.

All we know is that two people were injured and Emantic Bradford Jr. is dead, and a Hoover officer killed him. All the world sees is how your story keeps changing.

You, Hoover, said Bradford was the shooter responsible for those two people’s injuries.

Then you, Hoover, said he wasn’t the shooter, but was brandishing a gun.

Then you, Hoover, “clarified” that he wasn’t actually brandishing a gun, but holding one in his hand.

And your city council huddled behind closed doors for hours to talk of the legal – and likely financial -- threats you face if it all goes south.

I’d be tempted to say you have the right to remain silent, that anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of public opinion and it already has.

But what you really have is an obligation to be open and forthcoming. Because everything you say and every bit of evidence you show can also be used to ease the concerns people who are justifiably worried about what took place in your city.

If there is video, show it. If there is not video, explain why. It’s not just about protecting yourself or your city from lawsuit right now. It’s about public confidence in law enforcement. It’s about understanding that your officers’ jobs are more difficult when you – as a city – look like you’re hiding something.

There are things we don’t know. A lot of them.

And there are things we do know. We know the people who fired the first shots fled the scene and got away.

And we know the reality that a man with a gun facing police in an active shooter situation is going to get shot nine times out of 10. Sadly, we know that a young black man in that situation is probably going to get shot all 10.

So of course there is national attention.

Of course there is concern that your story keeps changing.

Of course people who want to trust police – and those who don’t – are clamoring to see bodycam or mall footage of the shooting.

It’s in the public interest to see it. It happened in the most public of places by the people who are paid with public money to keep the public safe. It’s as much their business as it is the city council members who locked themselves away to fret over consequences.

It’s the same all over. Huntsville refuses to release bodycam footage of police shooting a mentally unstable man, even though the city is paying to defend the officer. A Mobile city official said in court this year that cops would stop wearing bodycams if they were a matter of public record.

Which defeats the whole point.

Departments release footage all the time to show officers bravely saving victims from car crashes, or to show them buying shoes for homeless people or singing with neighborhood children.

But bodycams are not meant for public relations. They exist to protect the public as much as they exist to protect cities from lawsuit or officers from charges.

We don’t know what kind of job Hoover police did Thursday night. There is doubt because the city of Hoover can’t get its story straight.

It should do itself and those officers a favor and release the footage. Unless, in the bright spotlight, it really has something to hide.

John Archibald, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is a columnist for Reckon by AL.com. His column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Write him at jarchibald@al.com.