Fascism in Kansas

In America in 2023 the steamroller of fascism is rolling merrily along. And unless we all unite to stop it, it's going to crush us all eventually.

There's a "Breaking News" update on the website of the Marion Record in Kansas today. It begins:

According to the newspaper, a two-page warrant signed by Magistrate Laura Viar was presented at the paper's offices and at the Meyer and Herbel homes.

When a reporter later asked for a copy of the probable cause affidavit necessary for the issue of the search warrant, the district court replied with a signed statement saying no such affidavit had been filed.

Publisher Eric Meyer said the raid employed "Gestapo tactics"

A report in the Kansas Reflector said the raid involved "the city’s entire five-officer police force" as well as "two sheriff’s deputies" and notes:

The raid followed news stories about a restaurant owner who kicked reporters out of a meeting last week with U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner, and revelations about the restaurant owner’s lack of a driver’s license and conviction for drunken driving.

According the Reflector:

Meyer reported last week that Marion restaurant owner Kari Newell had kicked newspaper staff out of a public forum with LaTurner, whose staff was apologetic. Newell responded to Meyer’s reporting with hostile comments on her personal Facebook page.

A confidential source contacted the newspaper, Meyer said, and provided evidence that Newell had been convicted of drunken driving and continued to use her vehicle without a driver’s license. The criminal record could jeopardize her efforts to obtain a liquor license for her catering business.

A reporter with the Marion Record used a state website to verify the information provided by the source. But Meyer suspected the source was relaying information from Newell’s husband, who had filed for divorce. Meyer decided not to publish a story about the information, and he alerted police to the situation.

“We thought we were being set up,” Meyer said.

The Reflector also notes that the search warrant "appears to violate federal law that provides protections against searching and seizing materials from journalists. The law requires law enforcement to subpoena materials instead."

The human impact of the raid

As the Marion Record's story makes clear, the raid was also astonishing for both its brutality and the officers' willingness to go beyond the scope of of the illegally obtained warrant.

At the home of the publisher's mom:

Meanwhile, the 80-year-old wife of a dementia patient had her only phone confiscated:

At the newspaper's office, a reporter's dislocated finger was reinjured:

Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, told the Kansas Reflector: “An attack on a newspaper office through an illegal search is not just an infringement on the rights of journalists but an assault on the very foundation of democracy and the public’s right to know. This cannot be allowed to stand.”

"This should be a national story."

Noted journalists and historians spoke up on Twitter:

"This outrage should absolutely be a national story and a cause for journalistic solidarity. Shame these people," tweeted Margaret Sullivan.

"What authoritarians do," tweeted Ruth Ben-Ghiat.

Don Van Natta, Jr. called it, "an outrageous, unconscionable attack on freedom of the press."

Meanwhile, as Bill Grueskin points out: "In what can only be a total coincidence, the newspaper that got raided by the police chief had been investigating the police chief over allegations of sexual misconduct."

The fact that "Gestapo tactics" have come to Kansas is perhaps not surprising given that the state's Attorney General is the fascist-friendly, money-launderer-adjacent Kris Kobach.

But in America in 2023 the steamroller of fascism is rolling merrily along. And unless we all unite to stop it, it's going to crush us all eventually.

Update: 98-year-old Joan Meyer collapsed and died the day after the raid.

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