A weekend of copaganda in Grand Rapids: When GRPD expansion fits into the plans of the GR Power Structure

Over the weekend, there were numerous local news stories that centered around gun violence, policing and the GRPD. 

Unfortunately, the news coverage was not only uncritical, it provided another platform for the GRPD to spread their copaganda. For those who frequent the GRIID blog this type of local news coverage would not be surprising. 

Five weeks ago, I deconstructed a story about the GRPD providing so-called security during a Trump rally. In that story Chief Winstrom once again made the claim that it is the GRPD’s job to keep people safe, which is simply not true.

Both channel 8 and channel 17 reported on an anti-gun rally in downtown Grand Rapids, which also included the GRPD as a co-sponsor and Chief Winstrom as one of the speakers. 

Both news stories cited Chief Winstrom who said: 

“If the whole city turned out for this, we’d have mass layoffs at the police department. Because we wouldn’t need so many police.” 

I would caution people for taking Winstrom’s claim as anything but serious, since the GRPD and all police agencies would never support reducing their budgets or the number of cops. Equally important is the fact that even if all the residents came out to that rally, it would not fundamentally change the reality of gun violence. In fact the only way to directly impact gun violence would be through real policies that targeted gun manufacturers and community wide social movements. 

In addition, when people in Grand Rapids have turned out against hate and violence in large numbers – 3,000 for an anti-war march in 2003, 10,000 for an immigration justice march in 2006, or the 5 to 6,000 that showed up in 2020 for a Black Lives Matter march against police violence – the GRPD harassed, intimidated and arrested people for taking action against violence. However, these actions were not addressing the kinds of violence that Chief Winstrom is opposed to.

A platform to promote the need for more cops

On Friday, WOODTV8 ran a story that was straight up copaganda. In his forthcoming book, Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News, author Alec Karakatsanis defines copaganda as, “a special kind of propaganda, employed by police and news media, that shapes our fears and influences the social investments we make to address those fears.” 

The 2 minute and 35 second WOODTV8 story featured a GRPD Captain explaining why the Grand Rapids Police Department has been recruiting more cops, along with the methods they have been using. The news reported failed to say anything about the fact that the public is paying for the new GRPD recruitment methods, the cadet training process and then the new salaries and benefits once these cops are hired.

Additionally, the GRPD spokesperson then made the claim that as the city grows, so should the Grand Rapids Police Department. The cop stated, 

“We want to expand our numbers in the next couple years quite a bit. So I would say in the next couple of years — without speaking for the city commission, they’d have to approve it — but we would like to be in that 330 or 340 range. There’s a lot going on downtown with the amphitheater coming in, the soccer stadium. There’s excitement with the river transformation. There is a lot of great restaurants and nightlife down here.”

It seems that in addition to Grand Action 2,0, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce and its members, the GRPD also wants to cash in on all the events and entertainment venues. It is rather instructive that the GRPD is using these entertainment venues and activities in downtown as a justification for expanding their department. 

The only rational explanation I can think of is that the GRPD will be making sure that the unhoused/those suffering under the weight of Capitalism and political dissidents will not interfere with the profit making plans of the those that have dictated the development of downtown. This makes sense, since the history of policing has always been about the business of protecting the interests of the elites, which in Grand Rapids means serving the interests of the GR Power Structure.