'Seized ... but not silenced'
Cops and judge botch outrageous newspaper office raid
Law enforcement authorities have rescinded a search warrant issued by an incompetent judge, and carried out last week by police, on the Marion County Record, a small weekly newspaper in central Kansas. After a series of procedural mistakes were uncovered, the authorities in Marion essentially said, “Never mind.”
And in what sounds like a slap in the face of the embattled Marion police chief, an elite division of the state attorney general’s office, known in the Jayhawk State as the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, is taking control of the case.
For background on the story, see my column in CTNewsJunkie that went live yesterday: Newspaper Raid By Police In Kansas Is An Outrageous Abuse of Power.
And the PBS NewsHour interview with the Record’s editor is worth a look:
At this point, we know that police seized the computers, servers, and personal cell phones of reporters and editors at the paper’s offices. Simultaneously, police raided the home of the editor and publisher, taking his computers, his cellphone and the home’s wifi router. Also searched was the home of the city’s vice mayor.
Worse yet, police did not even follow proper procedure in applying to the judge for the search warrant. The affidavit necessary for the issuance of the warrant wasn’t even filed until after the fact. The paper’s lawyer later told the police chief the journalist shield law in Kansas provided for a court hearing before law enforcement could review seized information. This was never done either.
The editor says the sheriff who led the raid released the equipment to a computer forensics firm hired by the newspaper’s attorney to determine whether any material was examined (the cops say they hadn’t gotten around to it yet).
Journalists are howling in outrage for obvious reasons, but the more important question is why it should matter to you. If you’re skeptical, here’s my attempt to convince you:
It is likely a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution, as it abridges the right to freedom of the press.
The editor insists the raid was carried out because the newspaper was investigating why the police chief left his previous post as an officer in Kansas City, Missouri. If true, this is a shocking abuse of power worthy of a communist dictatorship.
If law enforcement authorities can get away with shutting down a newspaper because they don’t like what the paper is uncovering about them, then we’re all screwed. Unless media outlets have sufficient resources to fight abusive authorities, as the Record did, then they will either become timid or eventually shut down.
And to my conservative friends who don’t care because they think journalists are all a bunch of liberals anyway, we have this:
Recent studies have shown that an absence of media coverage of the public sector at all levels correlates with higher government spending and rising taxes. Perhaps worst of all, corruption increases through lack of oversight. To wit, look at what happened in Bell, California, where there was no regular coverage and no one was watching the crooks on the city council who were paying themselves $700,000 a year. It goes without saying that no one wants this, even people who don’t read newspapers.
I will be away vacationing for a few days at one of my favorite places — the Maine Seacoast. I plan to post some photos.
Adios for little awhile …