You may have read a news story about this months ago: On Aug. 11, a small police department in Marion, Kansas, raided a small weekly newspaper and its owners'/publisher's home in Marion, Kansas, over allegations of identity theft and misuse of a computer. 

In executing the search warrant, authorities took not only 98-year-old Joan Meyer's Alexa speaker and personal laptop, but the equipment that contained identifying information on confidential sources unrelated to the identity theft. Incensed by the raid, Meyer died the next day.

The county attorney withdrew the warrant within days and returned the materials seized. A reporter filed a lawsuit. The police chief resigned.

But continued journalist reporting into the raid and the warrant that allowed it raises all sorts of red flag. Several law enforcement entities knew about it ahead of time and should have known its rationale was flimsy at best. Yet no one appears to have interceded: https://kansasreflector.com/2023/11/06/kansas-officials-downplayed-involvement-in-marion-raid-heres-what-they-knew/

Law enforcement, both in Kansas and nationally, should not feel comfortable standing on the sidelines as their colleagues pursue something like this.

In order to protect the First Amendment rights of all working journalists and American citizens, a full investigation into the raid and the search warrant approval is needed by a truly independent organization. We cannot stand by just as those elected officials and officers did that day and allow that injustice to stand.

Updated Dec. 1, 2023