When a journalist becomes the news

More than a month ago, I wrote an article for the first individual assignment about my ride along with Officer Bill Thrasher of the 22nd Philadelphia Police District. The district covers Strawberry Mansion, which is the neighborhood to which I'm assigned.

I did the ride along on Friday, Jan. 30, after speaking with several officers during the course of the week. I arrived at 11 a.m., and after signing consent forms and putting on bulletproof vest, I hit the road with Thrasher around 11:30.

What ensued was an an approximately two-hour tour of the district, mostly of Strawberry Mansion. I observed as Thrasher responded to calls, patrolled the neighborhood and talked about his brief time as an officer. I was in the front seat - and sometimes standing next to him as he was on duty - with my pen and pad. He watched as I wrote down his words and thoughts, which I informed him would be published for a class.

The ride-along was eye opening. I got to see the darker side of Strawberry Mansion - one I knew was there, but residents won't talk about to reporters. And I got to see Thrasher do his job as he does it everyday. As I reported in my story, part of that job includes derogatory comments about the people of Strawberry Mansion.

The story blew up over the weekend. At the end of last week, I was receiving calls from friends at FOX and the Daily News. This morning, I received a request to be on the radio with Michael Smerconish. I declined all interviews and explained why.

I stand by my story 100 percent. I have the notes and documentation to back up the article. Professor Harper kindly offered to remove the story from the site, but I feel that would be an admission of guilt. However, I hope that by refusing interviews, my name will be used as little as possible in conjunction with the situation. The reason for this is because I run an online magazine for Northeast Philadelphia - my home, and the home of mostly white people who are cops or who are related to cops. Aside from the commentary on domelights, I've also received several angry e-mails via the contact page on my site. Since I wrote the article for class, not my site, I prefer to keep the two separate. I've recently applied for a grant to monetize my site and am planning promotional events at which city politicians are scheduled to appear. Despite the accuracy of the story, I fear that if too many people view me as a "cop hater" who "made this up to sensationalize a boring ride," as some e-mails have stated, I will not be able to formally launch my site.

A story ran in the Daily News yesterday morning. Another story ran last night on FOX, and The Clog reported on the article, as well. The Inquirer has a piece on it this morning, and several other news outlets, including NBC10 have picked it up. On Tuesday night, I agreed to speak with Claudia Gomez at FOX because I felt by ignoring so many requests, it would appear I have something to hide.

This has been a huge lesson for me. I expected people to be outraged by the article because of the harsh language, but I did not expect the accuracy to be questioned. Professors Harper and Washington have been very supportive, as have several other professors and administrators. More than anything, this has been frustrating. I've missed classes, spent nearly an hour listening to nasty voice mails and have now received e-mails criticizing the "provocative clothing" I wore in my last-minute interview with FOX. This has become bigger than I expected and has taken over more parts of my life than I have expected. I hope that it does not affect my future reporting for MURL.

Shannon McDonald