18 comments

WaiUShaoTing? : 3/18/2009
media/Pd conspiracy

It's a slow news day in GR. "Cop shot" gets atten. when people are tuning out the media lately-it's also a warning to students not to do drugs-or ruin your life! Today's "media for profit" like health, MIC spending,occupations, cold-hearted capitalism... need more skeptical disbelief 'n oversight these days. I'm not a pro police state fan--but the Copp name a 'give-away' to something good?--so don't get so upset & calm down-not worth the stress...FOR ALL THE NOBLE PEOPLE AGAINST REPRESSION, ie inequality,plunder n exploitation.

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Josh : 3/17/2009
Patrick

Dude. You are getting way too worked up about this... Have I sped?? Hell yea. Have I jaywalked? Absolutely. Can the police officer point out exactly what I did when I did those 2 things? Absolutely. Those cops were going in to an unknown situation. Oh so now you are going to say that the cops don't know what’s in my car. Actually they do. They know that I carry. And the first thing I do is hand them my permit and my license. But that’s just me. And that’s the idea. They didn't know what they were getting into. All they knew was that they had a warrant for search and seizure of drugs. You say "they should have done their research" Really?? Please tell me how they do research on whether a person has guns or not. Oh he might have a registered gun but what about unregistered ones? Oh the officer should have asked, you say? Hmm… yea there’s an effective way to make the dude nervous… “Hey do you have any guns?” Yes… He was doing something wrong. There is NO question about that. You can’t get a warrant without evidence of wrongdoing. Yes the cops could have gone and knocked at the front door, given him enough time to flush the drugs, and found nothing and this illegal substance would have continued to be distributed. As to whether or not it should be illegal I DON”T CARE!!! It doesn’t matter whether it should or shouldn’t be. IT IS. Yea slavery WAS legal, and we changed that cause it needed to be changed. I said one thing. That pot is illegal. Can you deny that? No. Was he doing something illegal? Yes. My personal feelings on the case aside, those are the facts and that all we know. Period. End of discussion. I agree with the last person and thus, this will be my last post on the subject until the cops release the results of the investigation.

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: 3/17/2009

For crying out loud, there's only a few things that are known at this point: 1.) A cop shot Derek Copp at his apartment 2.) The police were doing a drug raid at the time 3.) Derek was shot in the chest as he was raising his hands to cover the light Yet people are making completely RIDICULOUS statements on things such as whether or not they found drugs, whether or not the cop felt threatened, and now to the point where we have someone that makes it sound like the cops were out HUNTING! Can you PLEASE wait until the facts are released? I feel ashamed to be associated with this school when people are acting this way and writing things with very little knowledge of the exact circumstances in which this event occurred. Am I happy a fellow student got shot? No, but unlike the protesters and some people commenting on this news story I'm going to wait and see what the facts are before I make a judgment call. Please, stop making GVSU look like this, it's getting ridiculous.

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Patrick : 3/17/2009
Shooting

http://freetexthost.com/j4myo5vtlm Click it Josh, it's my reply to you.

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Patrick : 3/17/2009
Copp Shooting

So my reply to Josh is a bit too long for the site. http://freetexthost.com/j4myo5vtlm go ahead and click it, it'll take you to my comment. Educate yourself

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Patrick : 3/17/2009
Copp Shooting

Josh- Bottom Line: THE KID WAS DOING SOMETHING ILLEGAL!!! OK Josh, let's dissect the complete ignorance of your argument... You ever speed in your car? That's ILLEGAL!!! How about something like jaywalking? That's illegal too. Should you be shot for any of those offenses? Should five armed police officers sneak in through your backdoor and point a gun in your face for speeding or jaywalking? The answer is NO, as I'm sure you will agree, because speeding and jaywalking are victimless, relatively harmless crimes. The use of firearms would be excessive and ridiculous wouldn't it? Same goes for marijuana possession. The use of marijuana has caused exactly zero recorded deaths over the course of history. zero. compare that to alcohol and tobacco use, which together kill close to half a million annually. As I recall slavery was legal at some point in history. The entire underground railway movement was illegal. Keep in mind, Josh, that just because something is deemed illegal it is completely wrong. People make the laws and often people mess it up. Such is the case with marijuana prohibition. So check YOUR facts before you start mouthing off like you are. Also, we've already read accounts from both Derek and his father that he was shot as he moved his hands up to his eyes to protect them from those ultra-bright flashlights police carry around to shine in people's eyes. Not very threatening. Of course you could make the argument that the officer perceived it as threatening, but I would most certainly hope that a twelve year veteran could tell the difference between someone shielding their eyes from bright lights (which is quite common when they use flashlights they way they do) and producing a deadly weapon. So when you say "if the kid wasn't doing something wrong, this wouldn't have happened" you justify a mistake that could have left one of your fellow students dead. How about if the police weren't granted the kind of legal authorization to walk through the back of a college kid's apartment with their guns armed and ready like it was some kind of crack house, no one would have been shot. Maybe if they had done their research correctly (and apparently there was an undercover cop at the scene) they would have known Derek didn't have weapons, and certainly wasn't an aggressive person. A couple officers knocking on the front door to execute the search warrant would have been sufficient. And thats assuming that marijuana should stay illegal, which is completely illogical from public health, political, moral and legal standpoints. So Josh, how about you step your game up, you make me embarrassed to be attending the same university as you.

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FTP : 3/17/2009
shooting

The ottawa county sheriff put a death sentence on the kid. Facts or no facts, the sheriff was aiming to kill. You don't shoot someone in the chest to wound...that's attempted manslaughter in my book. Punish the kid for his drug use, whatever, but make the sheriff spend some years in a cell. Would any civiilian get a "paid leave of absence" for shooting another?

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: 3/16/2009

Nowhere yet has it been said that no drugs were found in his apartment. How about people just wait until the details are discussed instead of making GVSU students look like a bunch of morons?

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josh : 3/16/2009
to pat

You say hick like its a bad thing. =) granted maybe the swearing is a little much. However this is getting a little ridiculous. This protesting is completely unnecesary. No one knows the facts yet... like copp above me. Shut up dude... the cops haven't released anything yet... so chill out until we find out what REALLY happened... Dave - high five mano!

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: 3/16/2009
copp

law enforcement are suppose to be highly trained individuals...these kind of accidents are not suppose to happen. No drugs were found..Derek will never have to pay another dime for his education...the OCSD will be paying for it. If I were him I'd cash the chec and head down to Full Sail in Florida for his film education.

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Dave : 3/16/2009

To Pat: YOU'RE making GVSU look like a bunch of uneducated idiots with your improper spelling of the word "you're".

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Pat : 3/16/2009

To josh, Ignorance is a downfall... and do you kiss your mom with those lips? Your making Grand Valley look like a bunch of hicks with all your F-bombs when your on a public forum. Shooting anyone unarmed is illegal (and unethical)...

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josh : 3/16/2009
This whole g*d - d**n think

You know what? So much of the stuff thats out there is specualtion/rumors. Bottom Line: THE KID WAS DOING SOMETHING ILLEGAL!!!.. and one of 2 reasons why the cop shot him. It was an accident, or (and this is most likely the case) the cop felt threatened. Either way, if the kid wasn't doing something wrong, this wouldn't have happened. PERIOD!! So stop all of your f**king protesting before the facts are out!!!

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: 3/13/2009
Protest

First of all, I do feel bad that someone was seriously injured through this ordeal. Secondly, the protest was quite unneccesary at this point. The facts aren't all out yet. Lastly, many students were trying to learn on campus friday and found it quite distracting. I didn't pay my tuition to be disrupted by obnoxious music and a megaphone being blasted from outside my classroom.

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Alum : 3/13/2009
Ridiculous...

Sounds like the Deputy was trigger happy and the shot was likely accidental. My question is, where were the tasers? Cops have nonlethal force for a reason. In my home down, an officer just got charged with a SWORD and he tasered the guy (after he swung and missed). I know west Michigan can get boring, but this cop should be fired. Sounds like a great lawsuit.

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: 3/13/2009
Protest

Being upset about a fellow student/friend being shot is one thing, but going as far as protesting it before all the details are released is just ridiculous.

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: 3/13/2009
Corrupt Cops

Why is this cop on PAID leave?? and if they aren't disclosing any information, they obviously didn't find any "drugs" in the apartment. this cop shot a 20 year old for no reason and will most likely not get in any trouble for it. and for the people who ratted on this apartment, you caused somebody to get shot, mind your own business

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benjamer : 3/12/2009
Tragedy

The writer uses the word execute to show the action the police were taking on the warrent but what one Deputy may have done is execute a human being.

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