Kansas Newspaper Crackdown Aftermath: American Freedom Fading?!?

Prog blog perspective shares lessons from the Kansas newspaper police raid that garnered international coverage.

Ironically, just as this screed fears small town local police crackdowns on freedom of speech . . . Many conservatives rage over high ranking social media censorship and penalties for challenging the mainstream narrative. 

This quote might not find common ground but it's worth considering as we slouch toward an election year:

"Consider for a moment the way local officials abused their authority and generally disgraced their offices in the performance of their official duties, both at the time of the raid and since. It’s a sordid tale of local revenge politics, the strutting and bragging of small-town cops, the willingness of a prosecutor and a magistrate to go along, and the failure of state officials who damn well knew better to intervene.

"Now imagine that this comedy of terrors is unleashed not on the local newspaper, which is the best equipped of all local institutions to fight back, but is directed instead at a friend or neighbor. Imagine these tactics are used against you or your family while you were exercising your normal law-abiding actions guaranteed by the First Amendment. Imagine being raided for expressing your opinion in a letter to the editor, or for going to church (or for not going to church), or for peaceably assembling at a town hall meeting.

"The abuses by the tinpot dictators in Marion have been laid bare by a media spotlight fueled by public outrage. But what also worries me are the abuses perpetrated on ordinary citizens across the country who don’t have barrels of ink or digital platforms with unlimited bandwidth. The public outrage over the illegal raid on the Marion County Record was a justifiable response to a jaw-dropping abuse of power.

"But most instances of official misconduct don’t take place in broad daylight on a Friday across the street from the county courthouse in a sleepy little Flint Hills town. No, it happens during traffic stops on hostile highways to frightened individuals who don’t have powerful friends to call for help. It happens in filthy alleys and crowded backrooms, in well-kept homes and cozy apartments, in jails and prisons and anywhere else officials use their power to victimize others."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Newspaper raid exposed a shameful abuse of power-it's not just the press that's in danger

It's been four months since the police raid on the Marion County Record, but new revelations are deepening our understanding of what may come to be regarded as a signal moment in the history of American journalism. The more we know about the newspaper raid, the more alarmed we should be, because t...