The above image was made with stable diffusion using the prompt 'colorful painting of a printing press.'
In a small town in Kansas, The Marion County Record was recently raided by the Marion Police Department. During the raid on the newspaper office, police stole computers and phones. Joan Meyer, the 98-year-old co-owner of the paper, died immediately following a related raid on her home, during which police stole all of the electronic devices she relied on for safety and to pass the time.
The raid was not supported by a subpoena, as is customary in law enforcement actions against news outlets. It was instead supported by a warrant claiming that the paper had obtained private information about a prominent local businesswoman illegally. Here's a quote from an Associated Press story about it:
Press freedom and civil rights organizations said that police, the local prosecutor’s office and the judge who signed off on the search warrant overstepped their authority. “It seems like one of the most aggressive police raids of a news organization or entity in quite some time,” said Sharon Brett, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, adding that it seemed “quite an alarming abuse of authority.” Seth Stern, director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement that the raid appeared to have violated federal law, the First Amendment, “and basic human decency.” “The anti-press rhetoric that’s become so pervasive in this country has become more than just talk and is creating a dangerous environment for journalists trying to do their jobs,” Stern said.
From where I stand, it looks like local law enforcement was weaponized against the free press by a local business interest. That's not just bad. It's evidence that the last of our freedoms can be taken away in an instant by people in power. From the moment police began acting in service to this interest rather than in service to the public good, they ceased to be police, and transformed into a mercenary force. A mercenary force that was used to directly attack freedom.
At minimum, all of the authorities involved in this should lose their jobs and be barred from public service forever. But that's probably not going to happen. I'm not aware of anyone in government losing their jobs over the vast censorship regime that came into being during covid, and that's a much bigger deal. Clearly, the system isn't working.
My great fear here is that at some point people will grow tired of having mercenaries actively stifling free speech in their communities. And with no legal recourse available, some will inevitably turn to extralegal methods of pursuing justice. There's grave danger for our society inside of this possibility. The next event could easily snowball into civil unrest or worse.
Public officials could be doxxed, harassed, or otherwise targeted by the oppressed masses. Even if there are no armed standoffs, there will surely be a further erosion of public confidence in authority. Over time, this loss of confidence may dissolve the foundational belief that government is legitimate. If that happens, all bets are off.
Some would argue that elections are the basis of government's legitimacy in this country. I disagree. Elections approximate popular support. They don't magically make all government actions legitimate. The actions themselves, whether carried out by elected or appointed officials, determine the government's legitimacy. And when these actions attack freedom, it turns the government into a junta.
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