Today’s media racial profiling

You may have heard that a policeman was killed in Elkins, WV.   Police were serving a warrant based on his involvement in selling cocaine and being a felon in possession of a firearm.   Police returned fire after Charles E Smith, aged 50, fired a shotgun at them.   The police and media immediately released his name, probably in part because he is dead.

My family drove through Elkins a number of times before I-79 and US 19 were built.   It was one creepy place.    A lot of men just hanging around to get a “date” with one of the 3 women still left in town.   Most of the activity in the area was related to coal mining or timber harvesting.

Trying to “double down” on the Arizona Loughner stupidity, the Daily Koz concluded based on their exhaustive research that the cop killer was a Glenn Beck Conservative by searching MySpace of “Charles Smith Elkins WV”.    Only problem is the killer was 50, and the person they accused of killing the cop is a 29 year old truck driver.  Smith is kind of a common name.  There are 18 Charles Smith’s in the area’s phone books, and not many people still use landlines.

NPR reports the shootings occurred at 319 Central Street, a large house that had been converted into apartments.

We sure have a lot of details very fast.   Can we conclude anything about his cultural identity?

The local newspaper has the most details – the most intriguing being this warrant was from 2006, and probably 10 officers from at least 3 agencies were involved. There must be more to this story than a crack head with a shotgun.