Copaganda: Deconstructing the GRPD TV series on HBO/MAX – Episode #5

Editors Note: The fact that Episode #5 aired on Tuesday night, while white people and other police apologists are still defending Schurr, and the GRPD has been arresting people who are supporting the Lyoya family at the court house. 

Episode #1 affirmed stereotypes about Black people, thus perpetuating structural racism. The episode also demonstrated that this TV series will be a highly constructed show with the GRPD dictating the narrative about who they are and what they do.

Episode #2 once again centered on a criminal case involving Black people, where Police Chief Winstrom said people who don’t want to talk with cops suffer from “generational mistrust.”

In Episode #3 follows the case of a Black person charged with a shooting, which further normalizes the white supremacist belief that Black people are inherently deviant and violent. In addition, the Black woman who was charged with the shooting experienced domestic violence from the man she shot. The GRPD uses this opportunity to talk about Domestic Violence and how there is a new Domestic Violence court. However, police and domestic violence cases are problematic, as cops don’t know how to deal with domestic violence, plus they often perpetrate more harm in domestic violence cases, which is discussed in this toolkit.

Episode #4 was essentially about drug dealers and drug users in the Heartside area of Grand Rapids. Every one of the dealers and users were Black people, so this episode continues to perpetuate racial stereotypes and present the GRPD as compassionate saviors of the unhoused.

Episode #5 begins with another shooting, on Cesar Chavez Avenue near downtown GR. Two Black men were killed in the shooting. The two suspects are twin brothers, who are also Latino. One of the twins was also hit with a bullet and he ends up at the hospital, while the other twin drove away. The GRPD picked him up later at his house.

The GRPD brings the brother in for questioning, but he refuses to talk and they let him go, since they really don’t have enough information to hold him. We then hear Chief Winstrom’s voice and he says what happened was “outrageous”. Winstrom then says to the camera, we need answers and we need them quick.” All the racist bullshit that this show perpetuates aside, the writing for this show is do damn awful.

Back at the GRPD headquarters, cops watch video of what happened, video from the area, because Grand Rapids is a highly surveilled city. 

The GRPD then brings in the mother of one of the shooting victims and shows her the video from the parking lots of the shooting. Why the hell would they do that and do it on camera. This is such an invasive scene and is an example of trauma porn.

Next, the GRPD calls in one of the twins and is baiting him with questions so he would admit to wrong doing. 

The episodes then cuts to a different shooting, just to emphasize how shootings are bars are “common.” The cops provide all the commentary and pontificate about what is happening.

Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker gets involved and provides his own commentary, talking directly to the camera. 

One of the homicide detectives then starts talking about how this “can’t be self-defense, it’s murder…..and we have to call it that.”

Another cops starts looking at video footage from the other shooting, the one outside of the Metro Bar. Everyone who has a guns in the footage, as either Black or Latino/Latinx people.

The homicide detective then decides to ask Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker for another meeting, in the hopes of convincing him that this was an “execution.” For several minutes, the GRPD cops are arguing with the Kent County Prosecutors office, attempting to ingest some drama here, but it is clearly a constructed dialogue. 

The next scene shows more video footage of the shooting at the Metro Bar, which leads to suspects and eventually the arrest of – you guessed it – another Black man.

Back again at the GRPD headquarters and two homicide detective are smiling because Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker is going to file charges against the shooter from the beginning of the episode. One of the homicide cops says, “this is very exciting.”

In the final minutes of the episode, the GRPD shows up to the suspects home, with more than a dozen heavily armed cops, compelling the Latino suspect to give himself up. He does give himself up, while walking backwards with numerous rifles pointed at him. The scene cuts to the Kent County Jail, where he is being booked in and the cop tells him the judge hasn’t set bail yet. 

Chief Winstrom gets the final word while the credits are rolling to say that the end result was justice. Simple as that. Winstrom gets to decide when justice happens, because it’s his show. However, after 5 episodes, the only thing that changed is that there were Latinos included as part of those committing crimes in Grand Rapids. I’m still waiting for the episode showing how the GRPD monitors community organizers and organizations to suppress any form of dissent against those challenging systems of power and oppression.