Kansas Cops Crackdown On Dead-Tree Media

Here's a peek at the future and social media consequences which often weaken local democracy & freedoms . . . . From our vantage looking at this small town crisis . . . This isn't so much a story with partisan implications but a reminder that any power unchecked can often be abused . . . And that's why it's important to ask questions.

Also . . . 

This report makes us VERY GRATEFUL that most local police agencies in the Kansas City metro operate with a great deal of PROFESSIONALISM and realize they're protecting people over politicos. 

Here's the story . . .

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.

Meyer said he had never heard of police raiding a newspaper office during his 20 years at the Milwaukee Journal or 26 years teaching journalism at the University of Illinois.

“It’s going to have a chilling effect on us even tackling issues,” Meyer said, as well as “a chilling effect on people giving us information.”

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

Police stage 'chilling' raid on Marion County newspaper, seizing computers, records and cellphones

Eric Meyer, publisher of the Marion County Record, answers questions in his newspaper office Friday after police seized computers, servers, cellphones and other items. He says he doesn't know how they will get the newspaper out on Tuesday, but, "We will publish something."