MARION, Kan. — A small central Kansas police division is going through a firestorm of criticism after it raided the workplaces of a neighborhood newspaper and the house of its writer and proprietor – a transfer deemed by a number of press freedom watchdogs as a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution’s safety of a free press.
The Marion County Record mentioned in its personal printed reviews that police raided the newspaper’s workplace on Friday, seizing the newspaper’s computer systems, telephones and file server and the non-public cellphones of employees, primarily based on a search warrant. One Record reporter mentioned one in all her fingers was injured when Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody wrested her cellphone out of her hand, in keeping with the report.
Police concurrently raided the house of Eric Meyer, the newspaper’s writer and co-owner, seizing computer systems, his cellphone and the house’s web router, Meyer mentioned. Meyer’s 98-year-old mom – Record co-owner Joan Meyer who lives within the dwelling together with her son – collapsed and died Saturday, Meyer mentioned, blaming her loss of life on the stress of the raid of her dwelling.
Meyer mentioned in his newspaper’s report that he believes the raid was prompted by a narrative printed final week a couple of native restaurant proprietor, Kari Newell. Newell had police take away Meyer and a newspaper reporter from her restaurant early this month, who have been there to cowl a public reception for U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner, a Republican representing the world. The police chief and different officers additionally attended and have been acknowledged on the reception, and the Marion Police Department highlighted the occasion on its Facebook web page.
The subsequent week at a metropolis council assembly, Newell publicly accused the newspaper of utilizing unlawful means to get data on a drunk driving conviction towards her. The newspaper countered that it acquired that data unsolicited, which it sought to confirm by public on-line data. It finally determined to not run a narrative on Newell’s DUI, but it surely did run a narrative on the town council assembly, during which Newell confirmed the 2008 DUI conviction herself.
A two-page search warrant, signed by a neighborhood choose, lists Newell because the sufferer of alleged crimes by the newspaper. When the newspaper requested for a duplicate of the possible trigger affidavit required by regulation to difficulty a search warrant, the district courtroom issued a signed assertion saying no such affidavit was on file, the Record reported.
Newell declined to remark Sunday, saying she was too busy to talk. She mentioned she would name again later Sunday to reply questions.
Cody, the police chief, defended the raid on Sunday, saying in an electronic mail to The Associated Press that whereas federal regulation normally requires a subpoena – not only a search warrant – to raid a newsroom, there may be an exception “when there is reason to believe the journalist is taking part in the underlying wrongdoing.”
Cody didn’t give particulars about what that alleged wrongdoing entailed.
Cody, who was employed in late April as Marion’s police chief after serving 24 years within the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, didn’t reply to questions on whether or not police filed a possible trigger affidavit for the search warrant. He additionally didn’t reply questions on how police consider Newell was victimized.
Meyer mentioned the newspaper plans to sue the police division and probably others, calling the raid an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment’s free press assure.
Press freedom and civil rights organizations agreed that police, the native prosecutor’s workplace and the choose who signed off on the search warrant overstepped their authority.
“It seems like one of the most aggressive police raids of a news organization or entity in quite some time,” mentioned Sharon Brett, authorized director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas. The breadth of the raid and the aggressiveness during which it was carried out appears to be “quite an alarming abuse of authority from the local police department,” Brett mentioned.
Seth Stern, director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, mentioned in an announcement that the raid appeared to have violated federal regulation, the First Amendment, “and basic human decency.”
“This looks like the latest example of American law enforcement officers treating the press in a manner previously associated with authoritarian regimes,” Stern mentioned. “The anti-press rhetoric that’s become so pervasive in this country has become more than just talk and is creating a dangerous environment for journalists trying to do their jobs.”
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Beck reported from Omaha, Nebraska.
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