MI cop shot unarmed, 20-year-old marijuana activist

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/MI_cops_shoot_unarmed_20yearold_marijuana_0316.html

Just another case of an overzealous cop. Hope the cop goes down hard.

I liked this guy Ed Brayton's comments.

National media has been absent on the case and local media has focused on 'irrelevancies,' noted Michigan Messenger's Ed Brayton.

"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.'

"But wait, there’s more. He had advocated the passage of last fall’s proposal to legalize medical marijuana in Michigan. And he liked the movie Drugstore Cowboy, as well as - gasp! - Martin Scorcese movies. Worst of all, he had quoted Grateful Dead lyrics.

"This strikes me as the drug war equivalent of asking what a rape victim was wearing."

Copp reportedly wants to be a filmmaker and said he may produce work based on the shooting.

This story starts with police brutality, knocking on the door and then blinding the guy with a flashlight. So they say he had a warrant, they shoot him, but he's not been arrested and there are no criminal charges against him. WTF? I get this feeling like "Deja F.U."

meta4 wrote:This story starts with police brutality, knocking on the door and then blinding the guy with a flashlight. So they say he had a warrant, they shoot him, but he's not been arrested and there are no criminal charges against him. WTF? I get this feeling like "Deja F.U."

Well, you left out the part about the guy putting his hand in front of his face, which in a dark apartment, could give the appearance of someone drawing a weapon. I'm not justifying the cop's actions, and definitely question why they would burst in the back door (did they attempt to get the guy's attention by knocking, yelling, etc.?), but I would like to know more before just calling this a "bad cop" story.

Markwes wrote:

meta4 wrote:This story starts with police brutality, knocking on the door and then blinding the guy with a flashlight. So they say he had a warrant, they shoot him, but he's not been arrested and there are no criminal charges against him. WTF? I get this feeling like "Deja F.U."

Well, you left out the part about the guy putting his hand in front of his face, which in a dark apartment, could give the appearance of someone drawing a weapon. I'm not justifying the cop's actions, and definitely question why they would burst in the back door (did they attempt to get the guy's attention by knocking, yelling, etc.?), but I would like to know more before just calling this a "bad cop" story.

Wow. My bad. I left out that part like the cops left out the part where they found guns and drugs in his apartment. If they suspected there were guns, they could have used tear gas. IMO, they could have served a warrant later, during daylight hours where nobody's eyes could play tricks on them. The news reports never said he was going to be arrested, they said the drug task force was there to serve a warrant. It could have been a search warrant.

Would you care to offer a plausible explanation (hypothetically of course) how a flashlight can illuminate a man, but somehow not illuminate the invisible gun in his hand? Even if he had a gun in his own apartment, the police started the confrontation with an after dark blitz...

That's ok... but you're sounding like a shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later-unless-it's-my-kid kind of guy.

The officer got lucky the kid didn't die. Take a gander at the article link, and the multitude of links to reports from the surrounding community. There's also the news report videos, and the parents statements.

... and I never said "bad" cop. Poor Judgement is not a good quality to have in a Sherrif's Deputy.

meta4 wrote:

Markwes wrote:

meta4 wrote:This story starts with police brutality, knocking on the door and then blinding the guy with a flashlight. So they say he had a warrant, they shoot him, but he's not been arrested and there are no criminal charges against him. WTF? I get this feeling like "Deja F.U."

Well, you left out the part about the guy putting his hand in front of his face, which in a dark apartment, could give the appearance of someone drawing a weapon. I'm not justifying the cop's actions, and definitely question why they would burst in the back door (did they attempt to get the guy's attention by knocking, yelling, etc.?), but I would like to know more before just calling this a "bad cop" story.

Wow. My bad. I left out that part like the cops left out the part where they found guns and drugs in his apartment. If they suspected there were guns, they could have used tear gas. IMO, they could have served a warrant later, during daylight hours where nobody's eyes could play tricks on them. The news reports never said he was going to be arrested, they said the drug task force was there to serve a warrant. It could have been a search warrant.

Would you care to offer a plausible explanation (hypothetically of course) how a flashlight can illuminate a man, but somehow not illuminate the invisible gun in his hand? Even if he had a gun in his own apartment, the police started the confrontation with an after dark blitz...

That's ok... but you're sounding like a shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later-unless-it's-my-kid kind of guy.

The officer got lucky the kid didn't die. Take a gander at the article link, and the multitude of links to reports from the surrounding community. There's also the news report videos, and the parents statements.

... and I never said "bad" cop. Poor Judgement is not a good quality to have in a Sherrif's Deputy.

I wasn't implying that you said "bad" cop. That was my summation of Ed Brayton's article. And I also said I'm not justifying the cop's actions. I would just like to know more about what happened besides the report from a TV news crew. There's no chance of TV News sensationalising the story is there?

It's interesting that you focus on the aspect of there not being an arrest. I suppose they might not be as anxious to ransack his house now that they shot him unarmed, eh? I mean if I get pulled over for driving over the speed limit and the cop shoots me as I'm reaching for my wallet, I'd say there's a pretty good chance he will forget the ticket.

Markwes wrote:I wasn't implying that you said "bad" cop. That was my summation of Ed Brayton's article. And I also said I'm not justifying the cop's actions. I would just like to know more about what happened besides the report from a TV news crew. There's no chance of TV News sensationalising the story is there?

It's interesting that you focus on the aspect of there not being an arrest. I suppose they might not be as anxious to ransack his house now that they shot him unarmed, eh? I mean if I get pulled over for driving over the speed limit and the cop shoots me as I'm reaching for my wallet, I'd say there's a pretty good chance he will forget the ticket.

Ok, fair, fair. I didn't praise the news reports. I did notice there were several sources which corroborate the same elements of the story. Brayton's article I praised because it attacked the media's presentation of "sensation" rather than the fact that police showed up in an odd way and shot an unarmed KID.

You kinda just summarized that you are sticking up for the cop (or refraining from judgement) for lack of evidence, but I think the fact they left empty handed and didn't arrest him is evidence of their lack of evidence. My point is that often times these specially trained squads are nothing more than goons who are given an inch, and they take a mile. If they truly believed this guy was worth taking down, they would have been more careful, thorough and had calculated everything in advance.

Ok, lemme try to at least hit the wall with this swing... If we've got drug dealers shooting other drug dealers in gang wars, people tend to care less about that than when a cop shoots or kills a kid. We've got to reevaluate the "war" on drugs and specifically marijuana. Because in this case, these guys were 5 of the 25 members of an undercover drug "hit squad", using the same tactics they use with a big cocaine dealer on a pot smoker. We've got to look at who this war hurts vs. who it helps. I'm not talking about ethereal abstract 'protect the country - make sausage - feel safe' kind of help, I mean the big money kind of help, where does all the big money to make war on this come from and where does it end up.

The first step would be to decriminalize possession of small amounts for personal use. Make it a civil fine for possession instead of a bullet to the lung/liver/brain.

... Another one bites the dust.

Sounds fine to me!