from Hacker News

Police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom

by bratgpttamer on 8/14/23, 12:38 PM with 146 comments

  • by jsnell on 8/14/23, 1:22 PM

  • by wishfish on 8/14/23, 2:16 PM

    There's been some interesting updates to the story.

    The Marion Record was in the process of investigating the Marion police chief. He used to work for the Kansas City (MO) PD. Allegedly, he was demoted for "sexual misconduct" before he quit and came to work for Marion.

    This reveal comes in an interview of the Marion Record's publisher. It's an interesting read and he's an interesting guy. One of the old school reporters, in a very good way.

    https://thehandbasket.substack.com/p/a-conversation-with-the...

    The other new development is the Kansas Bureau of Investigation revealed they were part of building the case against the newspaper. KBI didn't participate in the raid, but were otherwise working with the Marion police.

    https://kansasreflector.com/2023/08/13/kbi-director-on-mario...

  • by thinkcontext on 8/14/23, 2:52 PM

    On top of the judge signing off on the warrant when this likely contradicted federal law, we have this:

    > When the newspaper asked for a copy of the probable cause affidavit required by law to issue a search warrant, the district court issued a signed statement saying no such affidavit was on file, the Record reported.

    Not a lawyer and I know it takes quite a lot for a judge to be disciplined but that would seem to be something a judicial conduct board would want to look at.

    https://apnews.com/article/marion-kansas-newspaper-raid-aca0...

  • by Kapura on 8/14/23, 2:51 PM

    This is really, really upsetting to be happening in my country. I know it is a very big country, and Kansas isn't exactly proximate, but we are either a country that protects the press, or we are a country where the press protects those who have power. If this is allowed to pass without the people ordering the raid fired, I am not optimistic about what the future holds.

  • by jjk166 on 8/14/23, 2:46 PM

    For reference this is the form for requesting motor vehicle records in Kansas [0]

    It asks for "your" information to find the record, but based on the allowed uses you can definitely get records for other people. I would say a journalist accessing DUI records would fall under permitted use case M. That accessing this is identity theft is a farcical claim.

    [0] https://www.kansas.gov/ssrv-mvr-ltd/

  • by indymike on 8/14/23, 3:46 PM

    This article: https://thehandbasket.substack.com/p/a-conversation-with-the... contains a detailed interview with editor of the raided newsroom. When asked about pulbic support, the publisher said he had a lot of support from out of town, but the locals... well:

    "They're afraid. They're really afraid that the police power is unchecked, and that they can be punished like this."

  • by mkovach on 8/14/23, 2:59 PM

    Seems to me this might be plain old intimidation. The folks involved, which includes the Police Chef, see that somebody is leaking information to the press and a trying very hard to find they leak(s). Since they can't figure out who, and the press isn't publishing anything they are cranking up the heat.

    In both cases he says that they are investigating allegations. In fact, at one point it is said, they turned over information to the police because they thought it might be related to a civil matter (somebody's divorce). They don't feel they have enough information to make the allegations public.

    Something never change but the semantics, police are trying to find the leak, IMHO.

  • by myself248 on 8/14/23, 1:29 PM

    If the article is even half accurate, they must be using a different definition of "identity theft" than the one I understand.

  • by helsinkiandrew on 8/14/23, 1:57 PM

    > "It is true that in most cases, [the Privacy Protection Act] requires police to use subpoenas, rather than search warrants, to search the premises of journalists unless they themselves are suspects in the offense that is the subject of the search," Cody said.

    Presumably the restaurant owner accusing the newspaper editor of identity theft gives good cover for the police chief to get a warrant and search for anything else (ie information about investigations into himself). That does give a veneer of legality to the raid.

  • by findalex on 8/14/23, 1:36 PM

    Sounds like this restaurant owner has some friends high up on the force?

  • by nimbius on 8/14/23, 3:41 PM

    most of the stories im seeing so far are pretty one-sided, with Marion decidedly very quiet on the issue entirely for very good reason.

    What was originally intended to be a show of intent, a brassy display of the sort of wheeling-and-dealing political life that has always existed in small rural towns has detonated with a spectacle not seen since the Beirut explosion. This is the sort of scandal that disbands police departments under consent-decree and sends your entire small town leadership from the city council up to the mayor out the door.

    If the point was to ensure a coverup, you couldnt have done worse. constitutional transgressions like this have the ability to dissolve the Marion entirely.

  • by dfxm12 on 8/14/23, 2:04 PM

    Hopefully it also raises alarms about corrupt cops and Qualified Immunity.

  • by JumpCrisscross on 8/14/23, 6:09 PM

    If you feel enraged and want to direct it productively, consider subscribing to the Marion County Record [1]. ($35 for online only, $50 for print, which might make for a nice memorabilia or gift for a journalist friend.)

    [1] https://marionrecord.com/credit/subscription:MARION+COUNTY+R...

  • by LatteLazy on 8/14/23, 2:40 PM

    As I understood it, the first amendment has been hedged to protect what papers can publish. But it does not protect how or where they get the information. The result is that courts and the police both can and will raid offices, seize materials etc. The only protections against this are (a) getting it published before you're raided and (b) whatever respect for the spirit of the constitution you can inspire in judges or maybe lawmakers to try and codify these things.

    Is that wrong?

    I am asking here about the actual interpretation of the law, not the "ideal world" scenario...

    This is the best case I could find:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branzburg_v._Hayes

  • by FrustratedMonky on 8/14/23, 2:47 PM

    "Try That In A Small Town"

    <Edit>

    Need to explain reference.

    There is a video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1_RKu-ESCY

    It kind of glorifies small town justice/vigilantism. Like, the rest of the country is falling apart, but the small town wouldn't let that happen (wink, wink).

    https://www.npr.org/2023/07/20/1188966935/jason-aldean-try-t...

    But then the original post, story about small town sheriff raiding a newspaper kind of shows indications of small town corruption.

    So the point is about the dichotomy of 'small towns' being pure and glorifying taking "American Justice" into their own hands, and also how they can corrupt those same values.

    The original post is a counter story about how things can go wrong there too. You can have small town 'justice' also take the form of actions that go against American Values like freedom of speech.

  • by landosaari on 8/14/23, 3:26 PM

    Some interesting countries with better freedom of the press than United States (2023): Namibia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Argentina[0]

    [0] https://rsf.org/en/index

    From the website it states the following.

    "It is a snapshot of the media freedom situation based on an evaluation of pluralism, independence of the media, quality of legislative framework and safety of journalists in each country and region."

    Is there an different list to compare against?

    @Kapura since your country is big: would it be better to compare each state individually?

  • by CatWChainsaw on 8/14/23, 3:02 PM

    The Streisand Effect is a real bitch, ain't it...

    Traumatizing a 98yo woman to death also doesn't help the police's image.

  • by nextmove on 8/14/23, 4:50 PM

    > Meyer's mother, Joan Meyer, collapsed and died one day after police raided her home.

    So will the Stasis be charged for manslaughter? Oh right this government is totally corrupt.

  • by remote_phone on 8/14/23, 1:46 PM

    Who has authority to investigate the police department for this obvious corruption? Can anyone be held accountable?

  • by sixothree on 8/14/23, 1:28 PM

    Checks and balances are needed.

  • by megabless123 on 8/14/23, 1:34 PM

    The police cannot be reformed

  • by arunharidas on 8/14/23, 4:23 PM

    NPR cheered when conservative media got targeted and when they came after them they're crying violation of freedom of press. You can't have the cake and eat it too.