Marion County Record: police raid anniversary, securing small business, journalists
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock.
On 11 August 2023, police in the small Kansas town of Marion conducted a controversial and unprecedented raid on the local newspaper, Marion County Record, seizing the mobile phones and computers from this small business. Simultaneously, the police conducted a raid on an independent member of the local council who had been unpopular with the mayor due to her "critical commentary" of local governance.
Joan Meyer, a former editor of the paper and mother of Eric Meyer, the current editor, died of a heart attack the day after the raid. She was 98 years old.
It reminds me a lot of the crisis in free software organizations where the leaders are now making false police reports to denounce anybody who talks about the Debian Suicide Cluster and other scandals like the Swiss JuristGate affair.
A commemorative event was organized in Marion today for the first anniversary of the raid.
Rather than silencing the Marion County Record, the raid has reminded us of the Streisand effect. As members of the audience watched a documentary about the death of Joan Meyer, another production company was in attendance preparing the next documentary about the scandal.
A panel discussion spoke about some of the legal and ethical issues and then fielded a wide range of questions from the audience. Participants included Jaime Green (Wichita Eagle), Max Kautsch (Kansas Coalition for Open Government), Sherman Smith (Kansas Reflector) and Paul Green (Kansas Wesleyan University).
Wichita singer/songwriter Emily Judson performed a song dedicated to the life and death of Joan Meyer.
A few days before the anniversary, prosecutors announced that the former police chief who conducted the raids will face criminal charges for his poor behavior.
Finally, the Kansas Press Association declared Eric Meyer has been inducted into their Hall of Fame.
I couldn't help thinking about the $120,000 that has been spent on lawyers to try and censor my blogs about the Debian Suicide Cluster. In return, their money bought a censorship order that was inconveniently signed off on World Press Freedom Day.
Related: the falsification of accusations against Jacob Appelbaum.
From World Press Freedom Day:
Anniversary of raid in Marion, Kansas on 11 August
This is the moment when Emily Bradbury announces that Eric Meyer has been inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Kansas Press Association: █
