you're going to think that the story I'm about to tell you is a complete fabrication some will believe I'm describing events that unfolded in another country a third world dictatorial country maybe you'll even think I'm reading a page from Orwell's 1984 referring to some dystopian future but no this is in the here and now in the good old us of a local police in Marion Kansas with a population of about 1900 conducted a raid on the offices of a local newspaper just last Friday but that's not all they also rated the homes of the newspapers Publishers and reporters including the home of the 98 year old co-owner Joan Meyer more on what happened to her after the raid in just a minute and there's also a plot twist about the police chief who spearheaded the raid Eric Meyer the owner and publisher of the Marion County record said the city's entire five officer police force and two sheriff's deputies conducted The Raid which included the seizure of computers cell phones and Reporting materials now before we get to the reason for this North Korea style raid imagine being a reporter for this local newspaper and having your home rated and your personal belongings confiscated by the cops who are supposed to be protecting and serving you Meyer the newspaper's owner said the raid and seizure stemmed from a confidential Source leaking sensitive documents to the newspaper he criticized the seizure comparing it to seizures conducted by repressive government regimes letting this gestapo-like tactics this stalinist Russia type tactics this is what they do in the third world according to the Marion County record the Publications ordeal began when a confidential Source leaked evidence that a local restaurant proprietor that's Carrie Newell had been convicted of drunk driving but continued using her car without a license but here's the thing the newspaper never published anything related to that information because the newspaper staff reportedly suspected The Source was relaying information from Newell's husband during their divorce nonetheless after police notified Newell that the information was going around Carrie Newell alleged at a local city council meeting that the newspaper had illegally obtained and disseminated sensitive documents brought to my attention today that my private personal information that was illegally attained obtained by a mobile reporter was shared with council member um Ruth then took it upon herself to share that information with others according to reporting from the Kansas reflector Newell admitted to the drinking and driving arrest as well as driving with a suspended license yet she insinuated that the leak was meant to jeopardize her license to serve alcohol and harm her business so basically Carrie was being a Karen and in the process she told on herself in a public meeting but as the reflector reported Newell's comments during the council meeting regarding disseminating sensitive documents were untrue and she had police remove reporters for the record from an open Forum held by the U.S congressman Jake letourner at a coffee shop which she operates incidentally the Turner's staff had invited all the news media and later apologized so the Meyer family's newspaper responded the following Thursday by publishing a story to set the record straight then came Friday's police raids which were spearheaded by police chief Gideon Cody these raids were authorized by a search warrant that alleged identity theft as well as unlawful use of a computer and had reportedly been signed by judge Laura virar who's a Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge items seized by the police included computers cell phones and Reporting materials found at the newspaper's offices as well as at the homes of its reporters and co-owners the Marion County record was counting on some of the confiscated publishing and Reporting materials to put out its next Edition police did not give a time frame to the record for when seized computers and cell phones would be returned but Meyer said that his newspaper is doing everything possible to maintain its normal publication schedule now some are saying that the warrant signed by vyar appears to violate a federal law that provides protections against searching and seizing materials from journalists the law requires authorities to instead subpoena materials the circumvention of which by the police prompted Eric Meyer to liken the raids his newspaper endured to those conducted by repressive government regimes then on Tuesday it emerged that police chief Gideon Cody was also being investigated by the newspaper over allegations of sexual misconduct Cody became the chief of the Marion County police department in late April after leaving the Kansas City Police Department where he was a captain for 24 years and of course he left amid allegations of sexual misconduct oh and remember 98 year old Joan Meyer the co-owner of the newspaper paper apparently she was so distraught about her home being raided and ransacked that less than a full day later on Saturday after hours of being unable to eat or sleep and of being stressed beyond her limits the 98 year old Meyer dropped dead in her home my 98 year old mother who had lived in that house for 70 years was so stressed out by police being there seven officers at one point two of them watching her for hours seizing her equipment destroying her ability to turn on and off the lights by voice command doing other things of that nature that seizing a router that had nothing to do with this I mean there's nothing they could obtain from a router photographing my personal financial information that was lying on a table near there she got so upset about this that she couldn't eat she couldn't sleep and the next day she died of a heart attack Meyer's sudden death has since ignited an outcry from news media Advocates who condemned the police raid as something straight out of the authoritarian Playbook critics are calling the move an egregious trampling of Free Press Protections enshrined in the Constitution's first amendment in a statement Emily Bradberry executive director of the Kansas Press Association said quote an attack on a newspaper office through an illegal search is not just an infringement on the rights of journalists but in an assault on the very Foundation of democracy and the Public's right to know this cannot be allowed to stand the chairperson of the national newspaper Association John Galler added in a statement on Facebook quote Newsroom raids in this country receded into history 50 years ago today law enforcement agencies by and large understand that gathering information from newsrooms is is a last resort and then done only with subpoenas that protect the rights of all involved for a newspaper to be intimidated by an unannounced search and seizure is Unthinkable in an America that respects its first amendment rights John is wrong we've all known for quite a while that cops don't respect constitutional boundaries no newspaper or digital media Corporation stood up for Julian Assange no mainstream Corporation is standing against the Tyranny that happens the First Amendment Auditors every single day but maybe this is the event that will serve as the wake-up call for people to get their heads out of their butt cracks and stand against all forms of tyranny affecting every American everywhere leave your thoughts about this for the world and the global thought police in the comments section below if you haven't done so already subscribe to the channel hit the Bell notification icon give it a thumbs up share it with everybody know don't forget to subscribe to my private email list through my website highimpactflicks.com if you want to support the channel further the links are in the description grab a hard-hitting conversation starting design you can put on a shirt hoodie mug cell phone case pillowcase whatever you want but remember the price of freedom is eternal vigilance and indifference to this notion is the means by which the people have and will secure their own oppression I'll see you in the next video [Music]