GRIID end of the year in review: Part I – Local News coverage of ICE, GRPD and the Schurr trial

We are getting close to the end of 2025, which means I will be providing some end of the year reviews of the major themes that GRIID has documented. I will be looking at how GRIID tracked the Grand Rapids Power Structure, along with social movements in this community. Today I will focus on my work of monitoring local news.

There were a total of 40 posted that I did that fall under the category of dissecting the local news. Interestingly enough, the first post from January 7 was a WOODTV8 story where they provided former January 6th insurrectionist participant Ryan Kelley with an uncritical opportunity to present why he took part in the January 2021 action.

There were 14 times that I dissected how the local news reported on immigrations matters, with the majority of those stories having to do with how they reported on what Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE were doing to resist ICE repression. There were also several stories where I critiqued how the local news reported on what the Mayor of Grand Rapids or Police Chief Winstrom had to say about ICE. In each of these stories the local news took the Mayor and Chief Winstrom at their word. One example from WOODTV8 centers Mayor LaGrand’s comments during a City Commission meeting, despite the fact that for 2 hours during public comment people condemned ICE terrorism.

I also wrote a couple of responses to how local news was hyping the GRPD-centered show on HBO/MAX, which was nothing more than copaganda.

There were also several times where the local news provided Chief Winstrom a platform to misinform the public, stories where the local news acted like stenographers rather than reporters. Here is an example of a story that I critiqued, with the headline, GRPD creates counter narrative about incident from last weekend, while Chief Winstrom claims the cops have regained community trust.

In April it was the 3rd anniversary of the GRPD killing of Patrick Lyoya, so I provided a critique of the local news coverage for that anniversary coverage.

I also monitored the local news coverage of the stories leading up to the trial of Christopher Schurr, the GRPD cop who shot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head. The headline of that article was, Local news coverage leading up to Schurr’s trial has been influenced by his lawyers, experts, a failure to provide community voices and a pro-GRPD bias.

Lastly, I did a six month study of local news coverage around several issues, with policing being one of the dominant themes of local coverage, along with courtroom coverage because of the Schurr trial. Here is a summary of the trial coverage from the GRIID Report.

While there might have been 46 stories created regarding the upcoming trial of Schurr, there have been two things that stand out. First, the local news media missed opportunities to do a deeper dive or investigation into issues like whether or not the racial make up of juries will have any influence in the outcome of this trial. See the recent report, Race and the Jury, from the Equal Justice Initiative.

The local news also could have created stories by talking with people and organizations in the community that have been organizing fund raisers for the Lyoya family, marches, protests, even those who have been arrested by the GRPD for demanding justice for Patrick Lyoya.

Second, most of the 46 stories generated stories over the past two weeks have been recycling the same narratives about the GRPD killing of Patrick Lyoya some 3 years ago. This recycling of story narratives is a disservice to the public and it disproportionately reflects a bias that favors the GRPD and how policing is done in Grand Rapids. If I was someone who hadn’t already formed an opinion about what happened the day that Schurr shot Lyoya in the back of the head, I would mostly likely be swayed by the most recent pre-trial coverage.

Once the Schurr trial had begun, I wrote a series of articles on the GRIID blog, that also centered aspects of the trial that the local news media either did not address or addressed in a superficial manner. Here are those GRIID blog posts:

As the jury prepares to render their decision in the Schurr trial, why is there so little attention around police killing civilians and cop convictions? https:// griid.org/2025/05/05/as-jury-prepares-to-render-their-decision-in-the-schurrtrial-why-is-there-so-little-attention-around-police-killing-civilians-and-copconvictions/

Responses to the mistrial of ex-cop Schurr who killed Patrick Lyoya – Part I https://griid.org/2025/05/11/responses-to-the-mistrial-of-ex-cop-schurr-whokilled-patrick-lyoya-part-i/

Responses to the mistrial of ex-cop Schurr in the death of Patrick Lyoya – Part II https://griid.org/2025/05/12/responses-to-the-mistrial-of-ex-copschurr-in-the-death-of-patrick-lyoya-part-ii/

Responses to the mistrial of ex-cop Schurr in the death of Patrick Lyoya – Part III https://griid.org/2025/05/13/responses-to-the-mistrial-of-ex-copschurr-in-the-death-of-patrick-lyoya-part-iii/

Chief Winstrom is now saying that Patrick Lyoya was killed because the GRPD was understaffed https://griid.org/2025/05/15/42056/

There are reasons why the Kent County Prosecutor will not re-charge Schurr for murdering Patrick Lyoya https://griid.org/2025/05/22/there-arereasons-why-the-kent-county-prosecutor-will-not-re-charge-schurr-formurdering-patrick-lyoya/

Mayor and City Manager statement after County Prosecutor’s decision to not re-charge Schurr for the killing of Patrick Lyoya praises the GRPD and wants lawful and civil responses from the community https://griid.org/2025/05/26/mayor-and-city-manager-statement-after-county-prosecutors-decision-to-not-re-charge-schurr-for-the-killing-of-patrick-lyoya-praises-the-grpd-and-wants-lawful-and-civil-responses-from-the-comm/

I include these articles because they communicate two things. First, these articles demonstrate the reality that local commercial news agencies don’t question systems and institutions of power. In fact, I would argue that they begin with the premise that the GRPD and the local courts are both necessary and provide essential services to the residents of Kent Count. The other conclusion to draw is that it underscores the point that when commercial news agencies don’t hold power accountable, the public needs other sources and other news or news analysis sources, especially around critical issues like public safety.