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In Marion County newspaper raid, a grim threat to Kansans' First Amendment rights - Kansas Reflector (kansasreflector.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/news@lemmy.world
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The outrageous law enforcement assault on the Marion County Record newspaper raises a veritable forest of red flags.

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[–] [S] 27 points 3 years ago* (3 children)

After looking at the paper's website, I noticed that they accused the police of knowing that they were giving the drunk driving Karen a pass for diving without a license. This raid was in retaliation for reporting on that, since the idea that the entire paper was committing identity theft and they had to confiscate the staff's personal phones and all computers is ridiculous. Small town corruption, as it is. I'm also not sure that the federal law against what these corrupt cops did actually applies in Kansas (though using police action to crack down on someone independent of the law absolutely is illegal regardless).

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I mean, federal law or not it's a clear 1st amendment violation and 100% unconstitutional.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

    I was too hasty to judge the chief of police being insane just because the paper reported on his corruption. They were also investigating him for sexual misconduct allegations. That rep is going to be very very pissed off for dragging their name in the mud for this. https://thehandbasket.substack.com/p/a-conversation-with-the-newspaper

    EM: So the backstory that we haven't told, because we don't wanna get in trouble, is that we've been investigating the police chief [Gideon Cody]. When he was named Chief just two months ago, we got an outpouring of calls from his former co-workers making a wide array of allegations against him saying that he was about to be demoted at his previous job and that he retired to avoid demotion and punishment over sexual misconduct charges and other things.

    We had half a dozen or more different anonymous sources calling in about that. Well, we never ran that because we never could get any of them to go on the record, and we never could get his personnel file. But the allegations—including the identities of who made the allegations—were on one of the computers that got seized. I may be paranoid that this has anything to do with it, but when people come and seize your computer, you tend to be a little paranoid.

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    • [–] 9 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    What is the reason the police have to the judge to sign off on the warrant?

    Just saying the newspaper is investigating a police chief or a police officer is not going to get a warrant.

    I hope there’s more to this story. Or a lot of people are going to get sued.

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  • [–] [S] 7 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    I didn't read the affidavit, but folks are reporting that it doesn't justify the warrant for identity theft. I'm sure there are spurious allegations of a crime are in it.

    Edit:
    An affidavit justifying the warrant is being withheld by County Attorney Joel Ensey, whose brother owns the hotel where Newell has her restaurant.

    Read more at: https://www.kansas.com/opinion/editorials/article278199777.html#storylink=cpy

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    • [–] 5 points 3 years ago

    And just like that, the Kansas Reflector was seized.

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    [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    Welcome to the Streisand effect Kari Newell.

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