OPINION:
Police in the small town of Marion, Kansas, raided the offices of the local newspaper, and also a journalist’s home, and confiscated computers, cellphones, notebooks and other items supposedly related to a story written about a local business owner, Kari Newell, that included mention of her less-than-perfect driving record. The raid came, too, as the newspaper was investigating Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody’s previous work with the Kansas City Police Department.
Notably, just hours after the raid, the 98-year-old mother of the publisher, Eric Meyer, died; Meyer said her death was due to the stress of watching the police activity unfold.
The story twists and turns and ducks down some interesting alleys and side streets. But the bigger theme is this: So this is where we’re at now in America?
“This is the type of stuff that, you know, that Vladimir Putin does, that Third World dictators do,” said Marion County Record editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, CBS News reported. “This is Gestapo tactics from World War II.”
He’s got a point.
“Several media law experts told NPR the raid appears to be a violation of federal law, which protects journalists from this type of action,” NPR wrote. “The Privacy Protection Act of 1980 broadly prohibits law enforcement officials from searching for or seizing information from reporters.”
That may be.
But then again, many shows of force by government in recent times aren’t warranted.
We’ve gone from the FBI dark-of-night arrest of Donald Trump ally Roger Stone to brash federal law enforcement light-of-day storming of Mar-a-Lago to remove documents — the very type of which Democrats are allowed to keep — and to rifle through the former first lady’s clothing closets, and very shortly after, to indictment after indictment after indictment of the seated president’s political foes.
Heck, this police raid against this news outlet doesn’t seem so much an aberration as a new national norm. And that’s what’s so frightening.
These aren’t the best of times. These are the worst of times.
A simple allegation can oh-so-quickly turn into a cause to toss out the Constitution. Yes, police in Kansas had a court warrant. But why? Was that really necessary?
“Joan Meyer was 98 and was ‘otherwise in good health for her age,’ the newspaper said. But, it added, she had been unable to eat or sleep after police entered her home … under a search warrant,” NPR wrote. “Meyer ‘tearfully watched during the raid as police not only carted away her computer and a router used by an Alexa smart speaker but also dug through her son Eric’s personal bank and investments statements to photograph them,’ according to the Record.”
When the people who make up the system become rotten and corrupt, the systems themselves become rotten and corrupt; and when the systems themselves become rotten and corrupt, a dismayed public loses faith in the systems — which opens the door for the rotten and corrupt to make false promises to clean up the system. They lie; they can’t clean the system they made rotten; truthfully, they don’t want to clean the system because the corruption works in their favor. The rottenness feeds the corruption; the corruption fuels the rottenness.
This is what happens when a nation formed on a model of God first, government subservient, abandons that premise and flips the structure of power.
Government without moral constraints is government destined for chaos.
Police in Kansas say they conducted a lawful raid via a signed warrant from the court, and that they’re simply investigating an identity theft and “unlawful acts concerning computers,” tied to the local business owner,
Yes.
And feds say they’re carrying out a valid investigation into Trump — just as Democrats said they were carrying out valid impeachments of Trump — just as members of the media claim they’re carrying out valid watchdogging of MAGA types — just as feds working under Joe Biden’s White House said they’re carrying out valid surveillance of Catholics at church. The list goes on. If good is in the eye of the beholder, and in the mind of the individual, then anything goes; anything can be a good.
It’s only by relying on a higher source and biblical teachings where lines between right and wrong, lawful and unlawful, godly and evil are clearly drawn.
“Meyer said … one Record reporter suffered an injury to a finger when [police Chief] Cody wrested her cellphone out of her hand,” CBS News reported.
Maybe this newspaper is far-leftist trash — and finally received a long overdue comeuppance for its unfair targeting of conservatives. Maybe not. It shouldn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.
Not only is America facing a despicable moment in time that is seeing the power of the federal government unleashed against a presidential candidate who is actively campaigning for the office currently held by the very leader of that federal government — an astonishing weaponizing of the political system that’s typically only seen in the most corrupt and communist of countries. But America is also seeing an utter disregard for rule and order and law and the Constitution in almost every other facet of society, as well.
Hunter Biden gets by with selling access to his dad. Border control becomes open borders — and taxpayer benefits for illegals soar. Election Day becomes Election Month becomes Election Months becomes Stay-At-Home-Voting — and wink, wink, ballots become uncounted, unaccounted for, maybe even double counted. Ridiculously unconstitutional powers like civil asset forfeitures and seizures grow and then grow some more, allowing police and their partners to take without warrant; grab without going to court; hold and keep without permission. Schools and school administrators encroach where they have no business encroaching, even to the point of trying to strip parents of their authorities. Businesses and business owners begin to believe they actually have the right to tell employees to take medical treatments as a condition of continuing work; and to thrust LGBTQ, social justice and climate change agendas onto consumers with a boldness and arrogance that brings to mind phrases such as, “I am zee law!”
It’s only just due that news outlets feel some of the heat of the police state called America, too.
The players may change, the politics of the players may change — but the principle remains the same: Either Americans value liberty, or they don’t. Either Americans fight for God-given freedoms for all, or they lose all freedoms for all. Forever.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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