Update: 7:40 p.m. on April 23, 2009: The involved officer was suspended with intent to dismiss. That news also came from the Inquirer and Daily News.
Update: 10:12 p.m. on May 6, 2009: Ms. McDonald was the feature of a cover story in the Northeast Times.
The attention has probably subsided enough to write this now.
Shannon McDonald, whom I’ve known for nearly two years, got a round of 15 minutes of fame she didn’t quite want.
On March 31, the Philadelphia Daily News ran a story on the growing ire of a group of the city’s black cops.
The controversy surrounded around a single officer, and, it seems, Shannon started it all.
At least a month before, the 21-year-old senior Temple University journalism student had to write a feature story for a class. So, thinking a cop-ride-along would be a simple, strong and fast assignment for a class she’s eager to finish, Shannon contacted the 22nd Philadelphia police district, which covers her assigned Strawberry Mansion neighborhood.
Then she wrote, as would surprise no one who knows her, a tidy, professional 900-word profile on Bill Thrasher, the officer with whom she rode. That was in February. It was a school assignment.
I spoke to her after the ride along.
“How was it?” I asked.
“OK,” she said, in a way that makes me certain she neither expected nor wanted any attention for the story.
It took a month for her expectations to be proven shortsighted.
Continue reading What was lost in the coverage of a student journalist and a Philadelphia cop
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