Article in Minneapolis Star & Tribune victimizes Grand Marais

 

A story in the Star Tribune about a Grand Marais murder exhibits troubling journalistic judgment in my view, and the result victimizes Grand Marais.

Here’s the headline and subhead, which give you the gist of the story:

“ ‘He killed a monster’: Grand Marais man’s death has locals pulling for his alleged killer.”

“Levi Axtell, who has confessed to murdering Lawrence Scully, has a lot of support from those who knew about the dead man’s past. “

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The reporter does not appear to have interviewed anyone who expressed an alternative viewpoint — which I bet is far more common than those at the center of this reporting. The article makes Grand Marais appear a community of vigilantes, which it very definitely is not. For a town whose economy centers around tourism, that’s an unfair blow.

It turns one true statement — that an overwhelming number of people support Levi Axtell — into an untrue statement — that they support his murdering Lawrence Scully.

I think the most common view in Grand Marais would go something like this:

Many people who knew Lawrence Scully say he was a horrible human being, and the stories told about him suggest they are right.

But Scully had not been arrested, charged, jailed, tried or convicted of any recent crime. You can’t go around killing people just because they are horrible. (The dead would be stacked up like cord wood.)

And even if he had been found guilty of something, he did not deserve to be murdered.

Levi Axtell is a tragic young man. Most of the time he seemed a warm, caring and funny human being. His corny dad jokes when he worked at the service station and at the co-op were a daily delight, or a groan. And he comes from a wonderful family.

But he also clearly suffers a mental condition of some sort. That was evident far before he murdered Scully. His attorney has now expressed concern for his wellbeing given his erratic behavior, and the judge has ordered a psychiatric evaluation. It seems likely he will be found to suffer from some serious mental condition.

Whether that will mean he is incapable of being tried for killing Scully isn’t known yet. But here’s hoping he gets the mental health treatment he needs and not simply long-term consignment to a prison cell.

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I will bet you dollars to donuts that had the Strib reporter invested a little bit more effort, she would have found that this was the most common view in Grand Marais: We support Levi and his family, but we do not condone murder.

That should have been reported along with the views of those who seem to applaud this killing.