Ethics

Media Focuses on Irrelevancies in GVSU Shooting

By Ed Brayton

I'm sure everyone in Michigan has heard by now about the shooting of Grand Valley State University student Derek Copp last week during a raid on his apartment. The police say that they were serving a drug-related warrant, but have so far refused to say whether they found any drugs in the apartment or whether the warrant was for possession or trafficking. What I find astonishing in the whole situation is how the media is focusing on irrelevancies.

The Grand Rapids Press took a look at Copp's Facebook page and found that it had "drug references," as though that had some bearing on whether he should have been shot or not. They found out that the student had expressed "his advocacy and interest in reforming marijuana laws" and that he had declared himself to be a "left wing hippie peace-keeping liberal."

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).