TheAgitator.com
Update on the Grand Valley State Drug Raid
Sunday, March 15th, 2009Derek Copp’s father speaks to the press, and says his son was shot when he moved his arm to cover his eyes from the police flashlights as they came into his apartment. That would be consistent with the police account that Copp was unarmed, and that there was no confrontation.
It was also be another piece of evidence showing the idiocy of using such violent, confrontational police tactics for nonviolent offenses. These raids have a low margin for error, for cops and the people they’re targeting. I feel like we just keep rehashing the same story on this site, over and over.
The bullet apparently broke Copp’s rips, ruptured his right lung, and punctured his liver. The Copp family didn’t hear about the shooting until six hours after it happened. Even then they were told by hospital staff, not police. The police also still haven’t released why they raided Copp’s apartment, what if any illegal substances they found, or why one deputy felt the need to shoot the guy.
It seems pretty clear by now that Copp was a recreational pot smoker, though there’s no indication thus far that he was dealing (not the evidence of either would justify shooting an unarmed man). Meanwhile, the Grand Rapids Press apparently thought it would be a good idea to browse Copp’s Facebook account for drug references.
“I feel like we just keep rehashing the same story on this site, over and over.”
Thats cuz we do. :-(
Yep, its getting to be like “groundhog day” on here.
Hey Grand Rapids Press: who’s the fucking victim here?
1. They SHOULD keep their booger hook off the bang switch.
2. They SHOULD stop using lethal force for these warrants.
3. They SHOULD be held legally accountable for their mistakes.
4. They SHOULD (the newspapers) actually investigate rather than report what the police spokesperson tells them.
5. They SHOULD (the Copp family) sue them for a few billion bucks and get it.
6. They SHOULD decriminalize this and about 10,000 other things.
So he is judged to be culpable, or even criminal, because he supports drug reform? Because he believes that its OK to smoke marijuana?
This sh*t is like a back-door way to gut first amendment rights. Shameful that a newspaper doesn’t see the contradiction.
Yeah, man, that’s some hard-hitting reporting right there. His page sounds basically indistinguishable from every hippie-ass college kid I’ve ever met (which is many and many). Generally speaking, they’re the best to have in class. The jocked-out football kids toke, too, but it never seems to open up any doors of perception.
Either way, the disconnection from reality is staggering. Hurry up, newspaper industry! Die already!
You guys who are supporting Derek Copp are forgetting why marijuana was originally outlawed by the federal government. Yes, the measure was unconstitutional, but clearly necessary to safeguard American civilization;
“When a darkie smokes a joint, he thinks he is as good as a white man”.
Remember folks, this is why we have to keep marijuana illegal. The Constitution should not be held as an impediment; it isn’t a suicide pact.
I bet 20 Quatloos that the shooting is determined to be ‘accidental’ because the armed intruder … er… cop didn’t ‘intend’ to shoot the kid.
Hey Newspapers! Here’s your Headline:
Armed intruders break into college student’s apartment and shoot him in cold blood. Nothing reported stolen during the break in.
Like I said before, why in the world would the cop even have his gun drawn? It as an accident waiting to happen. We should be talking about the negligence, of such behavior! The cop escalated the situation and shot a kid, for raising his arm, to his face, to block the glare, of a bright flashlight. The cop should have never had his gun drawn. It was purely negligent! But, we all know, it will be justified, in the end!
Those comments on the site about his Facebook, had some really scary content! And the ignorance and abusiveness seemed to be on the side opposed to freedom. Busybodies! They are just such sinners (hypocrites)!
That’s now warrant service works, Micheal.
Cops don’t politely knock on the door to ask you questions unless they actually need information from you. Which is really unlikely in this day and age, seeings how informants and just making shit up works so much better.
If they already have a warrant, then you’re already guilty, a criminal to be taken down with the greatest possible prejudice.
Oh, were you under the delusion that the police are here to help you? No. They’re here to get paid, and to get paid, they need to make arrests. Helping people doesn’t get them paid.
Supposedly, after I was at a house (coworker of my wife) the other day, her fiance’s SISTER told the cops, he sold her some MJ! I have not figured out yet, why he was arrested, when they found none in his house or on his person!? Since when, can hearsay evidence get you arrested, without being in possession? The guy had been in trouble, for it before. And I think he was on probation. But, I still don’t understand it!
All in all, I certainly won’t be visiting them, ever again! It would be a great opportunity to get shot!
“Meanwhile, the Grand Rapids Press apparently thought it would be a good idea to browse Copp’s Facebook account for drug references.”
More excellent drug war reporting. Yuck! As if that even matters. If you print this tripe, you have some complicity, as far as I’m concerned. Don’t examine root causes, go for spectacle.
This makes my blood boil, especially the Grand Rapids Press article. First of all, they suggest that advocacy of drug law reform is a tell-tale sign of drug use. Next, they link drug-related movies to drug use. And finally, they somehow link a quote about peace and life being like a jar of jalapenos to drug use. I don’t know how.
In any case, you are totally right about the fact that the same scenario tends to play out when cops decide to raid a place. I wonder when police departments will begin to realize that these types of raids are fundamentally flawed and harmful to both citizens and the officers themselves. It’s common sense: if you bust into a place with guns blazing, you are probably going to make the situation a whole lot worse. I wonder what would have happened if they just knocked on his door and served the warrant.
Why do judges just keep giving cops warrants like this? Is a judge obligated to just sign a warrant? It seems that the real problem is that judges don’t force the police to prove they have a genuine probable cause before they issue a warrant.
“It seems that the real problem is that judges don’t force the police to prove they have a genuine probable cause before they issue a warrant.”
Hear hear! Radley, since you’re No-knock Central, how about running a file on negligent judges?
Because the file on responsible judges would be much shorter?
I mean, let’s face it folks, warrants have become a rubber stamp both figuratively and often literally. That’s the reality. The judicial branch has abdicated it’s responsibility in that regard entirely, unless the person involved in “politically connected”.
ktc2- “The judicial branch has abdicated it’s responsibility in that regard entirely, unless the person involved in “politically connected”
Amen!!! Brilliantly put! But how to change this? I guess if the mainstream media cared enough to cover it but they won’t.
My Facebook page also has multiple references to ending the drug war. That’s because I’m a member of LEAP, NH Common Sense, and other pro-liberty groups.
I haven’t personally touched the stuff in 25 years, but I adamantly oppose our current approach to prohibition.
Come on people! “His preferred movies include … Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino flicks.” If that’s not enough probably cause for shooting an unarmed man in the chest when he’s raising his empty hands to protect himself, then really, what is? Obviously someone like that is only a split second away from killing everyone in a 2 block radius, including over-armed police. The horrors!
I still don’t see the big deal here. Another low-life drug dealer or pot smoker gets shot, who cares? He’ll be dead soon anyway just because of his habits and the company he keeps.
LOL.
This guy (#19) has got to be parody right? Are there really people that stupid with doctorates?
#20, definitely parody. At first I wasn’t sure, but the above comment seals it.
Maybe the cop mistook the kid for his dog…
GVSU President Thomas J. Haas has made a statement about the shooting:
It’s not a full denunciation of the sheriff’s action, but the bolded sounds like a subtle criticism that Haas and the school administration aren’t being kept in the loop.
Of course they aren’t being kept in the loop.
Right now the cops are coordinating their perjury, planting evidence, leaning on informants and generally in full blue line ass covering mode. We wont get the “story” until they’ve cooked it up.
Then later we have to pick apart the lies and fabrications to get to the truth.
A good analogy that is easy to understand, even for law enforcement types, is to hot vehicle pursuit of suspects for minor offenses. The officers, the suspects, and the community are endangered for no good reason, you don’t take the risk of a hot pursuit for relatively minor crimes.
This is why most jurisdictions now reserve hot pursuit for the most serious of offenses only. The same policy needs to be adopted regarding militarised, no knock raids for minor drug offenses. At least until minor drug crimes are no longer crimes, as it should be.
ktc2: “Are there really people that stupid with doctorates?”
Succinct answer: YES.
Take it from a guy who works in healthcare.
Of course they aren’t being kept in the loop.
Right now the cops are coordinating their perjury, planting evidence, leaning on informants and generally in full blue line ass covering mode. We wont get the “story” until they’ve cooked it up.
Then later we have to pick apart the lies and fabrications to get to the truth.
There’s also the possibility that the school administration would be complicit in any perjury/evidence planting/general conspiracy. This indicates that they’re not, and that’s at least a little reassuring.
The cops actually met with the students organizing the protest earlier today, which is another good sign. A message from their facebook group:
It happens all over and is a clear violation of the RICO act. The law enforcement goons are racketeering, murdering, stealing property, and taking good people from their families and putting them in jail. ostensibly to save them from their iniquity? So even if it were as bad as they claim which research tells us over and over it isnt, to engage in a greater evil to stop purported “evil” IS the definition of EVIL. It is hard to fathom that in the land of freedom, fascism is out of control and destroying the culture and civilization as it claims to be trying to save it. Hard to believe those fighting for human rights, freedom and capitalism are ruthless gangs like in Mexico. But when the police and military are corrupt and even more violent, the politics of prohibition spin out of control and violence reigns supreme. yet the violence can be stopped by one stroke of the pen. It is time to stop the madness. These are important substances we barely understand. Stop trying to eradicate substances which have helped the human race for thousands of years, maybe even back to the beginning of time. What future medicines will we destroy NOW?? The US narcofascists want to destroy these substances. And they control the propaganda machinery. This is our Berlin wall and while the totalitarian government of East Germany “legally” murdered those trying to escape past this wall, the fact it was legal and officially sanctioned did not keep it from being evil and immoral. Like Reagan who fought to free people in Germany (while ramping up the loss of freedom of his own people) I borrow his sensibility…and make a similar call…MR. OBAMA…TEAR THESE LAWS DOWN!!!!!!