December 4, 2005
Media Criticism Department
A Minor Shooting
Radley Balko has an article about the killing of Cheryl Lynn Noel, who died from gunshot wounds during an early morning SWAT raid of the house where she lived. When the officers burst into her bedroom, she pointed a gun at them and they shot her down. Given that the raid only found small personal-use quantities of marijuana, it seems likely that Noel, a wife and mother of several teenage children, had no idea the home invaders were the police and was just trying to protect her family.
I'm just guessing. I could have that wrong. Cherly Lynn Noel's home could turn out to be a distribution center for half the drugs in Baltimore, for all I know. I guess we can expect the truth to come out in all the media coverage of the investigation, right? Well, maybe not.
All this happened last January. I remember reading about it, and you might too if you follow these kinds of stories like I do. But we didn't read very much about it, did we? Armed government agents storm a family home and kill the mother, and the news story runs just a few days? That makes it kind of hard to find out what's happening.
Balko has this to say:
...[T]he lack of follow-up coverage of the Noel shooting is disturbing for another reason: It's typical. With just a few exceptions in very high-profile cases, these shootings almost always trigger one or two pieces shortly after they happen, then the press falls silent. You'd think that when police storm a home in the early morning, then shoot and kill an occupant who is at best a nonviolent drug offender, and at worst completely innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever, it'd be worth some extended media attention. If we've reached the point where it isn't, how very sad for us.
I'm guessing that the media just doesn't see a hook for one of it's standard story outlines. Perhaps there's no racial angle, no way to blame a mayor or governor, no way to tie it to the war in Iraq. And for the same reasons, the story doesn't attract the professional outrage crowd—where's Al Sharpton when you need him? Where's the rap star accusing the police of hating people like Cheryl Noel?
I guess police killing someone in a low-level drug raid just isn't big news. As Balko says, that has unfortunate consequences:
I think a big part of the reason why the ubiquity of no-knock raids and the trend toward police militarization have gotten so out of hand is that the media has dropped the ball in its coverage of them. When the people in charge of protecting us start terrorizing, invading our homes, and killing us, that ought to be big news.
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I Just Found Out Tonite About My Friend Cheryl Noels Death
I Moved Away & Lost Touch .
I Have Read Every Article I Could Find on Cheryl's Death .It All Doesn't Make Sense to Me .
Cheryl Noel Was The Most Loving Person I Knew.
One Christmas Cheryl & Her Husband
Charles Noel Surprise My Family With Christmas Presents ,Breakfast & Dinner .
I Knew it Was Them as I Saw Them Drive Off .
They Never Knew In My Heart I Remembered Their Kindness Every Day Since Then .
Cheryl Noel Would NEVER Hurt Anyone ..She Couldn't Her Heart Was " To Big & Full of Love"
I Was Alone One Valentine's .
Cheryl Brought Me a Candle That Read :
"Love makes the Lonelies Go Away "
I Never Lite That Candle .I Never Wanted to Forget Such a Wonderful Person She Was .
I Lite it Tonite for Cheryl
Now Who is Going to Take The Loneness Away
for Charles,Mathew , Jacob & Cheryl's Family & Friends Who Loved Her So Much .
RIP Cheryl.. I Love You
Police May Have to Much Power
RIP Cheryl
This is a Tragedy ..that Could have Been Prevented
My Condolences to The Family & Friends
My condolences to Cheryl Noels family and friends. Tragic and very sad.
I posted this because of the issues involved, but the Kathy's comment is quite touching on a personal level. Thank you all for your interest.
I was urged to, but glad to do this.
While I get it that "protect and serve" might equate to the LEA protecting their own, I think this is a typical example of how degraded society has become in what is allowed in situations that might be better hadled otherwise. Heck why not just let them all go out and shoot to kill all redheads, or disabled, or poor, or people that wear hats, or those who might not fit ANY profile so dictated by the most disgusting justice system on this planet.
I don't know who she was or what, and I suspect they didn't either, nor did they care apparently. I so believe in Karma, and I have to believe a lot of BADGES will melt in hell, as so many of us other sinners might.
Beyond that, I pray the Media goes down in flames as well, for making tabloid trash out of this kind of thing.
Unreal ..I Hope The Police Involved
Have to Pay for What they Have
Done To Cheryl Noel. I Am Sorry for The Families Loss