Gestapo Tactics in the Heartland

I grew up in a rural community, living on a farm near a small town. I know that small towns can be havens of neighborly ties and community support. They can also turn into police states under the corrupt reign of lawless officials. Sometimes that leads to tragedy, as it did this week in Marion, Kansas. 

I read about the police raid on newspaper editors, publishers, and reporters last night, and thought I would wait until today to write about it.  Then I woke up to the report of the death of the 98-year-old co-owner of the newspaper. Heather Cox Richardson’s daily newsletter began: 

“In Marion, Kansas, yesterday morning, four local police officers and three sheriff’s deputies raided the office of the Marion County Record newspaper; the home of its co-owners, Eric Meyer and his 98 year old mother, Joan Meyer; and the home of Marion vice mayor Ruth Herbel, 80. They seized computers, cell phones, and other equipment. Joan Meyer was unable to eat or sleep after the raid; she collapsed Saturday afternoon and died at her home.”

By this afternoon, the New York Times had picked up the story. 

This morning, I thought I would skip writing this blog post. After all, the New York Times covered the story. And Heather Cox Richardson did even better, giving the historical context of the assassination of abolitionist editor Elijah Lovejoy in Illinois in 1837. But then I thought: maybe even one person who reads my blog will read the story here for the first time. Maybe even one person will pass this story on to someone else who has not read it and does not know the vital importance of defending free press and free speech, of resisting even the small tyrannies of small towns. 

The Marion County Record managed to publish its own story online—they don’t know when they will be able to publish on paper because of all the equipment seized from the newspaper.

“Stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief after illegal police raids on her home and the Marion County Record newspaper office Friday, 98-year-old newspaper co-owner Joan Meyer, otherwise in good health for her age, collapsed Saturday afternoon and died at her home.

“She had not been able to eat after police showed up at the door of her home Friday with a search warrant in hand. Neither was she able to sleep Friday night.

“She tearfully watched during the raid as police not only carted away her computer and a router used by an Alexa smart speaker but also dug through her son Eric’s personal bank and investments statements to photograph them. Electronic cords were left in a jumbled pile on her floor.

“Joan Meyer’s ability to stream TV shows at her home and to get help through her Alexa smart speakers were taken away with the electronics. 

“As her home was raided, other officers descended upon the Record office, forcing staff members to stay outside the office for hours during a heat advisory. They were not allowed them to answer the phone or make any calls.

“Marion police chief Gideon Cody forcibly grabbed reporter Deb Gruver’s personal cell phone out of her hand, reinjuring one of her fingers, which previously had been dislocated.

“Officers seized personal cell phones and computers, including the newspaper’s file server, along with other equipment unrelated to the scope of their search.”

There’s more, and you can read it at the newspaper’s website. (You can also support the Marion County Record by subscribing.)

Of course, the raid and seizures were illegal. Federal law strictly limits the circumstances under which any law enforcement official may search or seize material from news media. None of those criteria were met.

Moreover, the search warrant was supposedly based on an affidavit alleging probable cause to believe that identity theft had been committed—but the affidavit is missing and was never filed with the court. So what was really going on? Before his mother’s death, Eric Meyer explained to the Kansas Reflector: 

“Eric Meyer, owner and publisher of the newspaper, said police were motivated by a confidential source who leaked sensitive documents to the newspaper, and the message was clear: ‘Mind your own business or we’re going to step on you.’

“The city’s entire five-officer police force and two sheriff’s deputies took ‘everything we have,’ Meyer said, and it wasn’t clear how the newspaper staff would take the weekly publication to press Tuesday night.

“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.”

Coincidentally (?), the newspaper was also investigating separate allegations of misconduct by the town’s police chief. It had not published any story about either investigation because—as good journalists do—the staff was still investigating and fact-checking to be sure that they had all the facts before publishing anything at all. 

Meyer knows the crucial importance of local newspapers. The Kansas Reflector reported:

“Meyer, whose father worked at the newspaper from 1948 until he retired, bought the Marion County Record in 1998, preventing a sale to a corporate newspaper chain.

“As a journalism professor in Illinois, Meyer said, he had graduate students from Egypt who talked about how people would come into the newspaper office and seize everything so they couldn’t publish. Those students presented a scholarly paper at a conference in Toronto about what it has done to journalism there.

“’That’s basically what they’re trying to do here,’ Meyer said. ‘The intervention is just like that repressive government of Egypt. I didn’t think it could happen in America.’” 

Small towns can be havens of neighborly ties and community support. They can also turn into police states under the corrupt reign of lawless officials. When everybody knows everybody else, that means the sheriff and the judge and the police chief also know everybody. And that’s when they can issue a dangerous, even deadly, message: “Mind your own business or we’re going to step on you.”