Today’s blacklisted American: Gestapo police in Kansas raid home of 98-year-old newspaper owner, causing her death
Joan Meyer, now dead because of police raid
On August 11, 2023 the entire police department of Marion, Kansas, performed a Gestapo-like raid of the home of 98-year-old Joan Meyer, co-owner of the local newspaper, the Marion County Record, resulting in her death from a heart attack the next day.
The elderly woman, who co-owned the newspaper with her son Eric, was subjected to the raid by five officers and two sheriff’s deputies on Friday – which caused her to be ‘stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief.’ Eric, 69, has bashed the officers for their ‘Gestapo’ tactics in an attempt to seize information that hadn’t even gone to presses yet. Police have defended their actions.
Ms Meyer could not eat or sleep after the traumatizing hours-long ordeal. She was crying while the police raided her home and took her Alexa smart speaker – and died one day later. [emphasis mine]
It appears the police also that day raided the newspaper’s offices as well as the home of one of its reporters.
And why? All the evidence suggests this is a case of a local businesswoman working in teamwork with the police and a local judge to harass and destroy a newspaper. From the second link:
According to Meyer, a retired University of Illinois journalism professor, the raid came after a confidential source leaked sensitive documents to the newspaper about local restaurateur Kari Newell. The source, Meyer said, provided evidence that Newell had been convicted of DUI and was driving without a license—a fact that could spell trouble for her liquor license and catering business.
Meyer, however, said he ultimately decided not to publish the story about Newell after questioning the motivations of the source. Instead, he said, he alerted the police about the information. “We thought we were being set up,” Meyer said about the confidential information.
If Newell hoped to keep her DUI and illegal driving out of the public scrutiny by setting the police on this newspaper, she has failed horribly. Instead, these goon-like tactics — resulting in the death of an old woman — have encouraged every media source nationwide to publicize it.
Moreover, this was an a priori attack. This term was once known by every American, when freedom of speech and the rule of law dominated our culture. The government and police were not allowed to take an action unless a crime had actually been committed. It was considered not only illegal to act against someone because that person might commit a crime, it was considered immoral and unethical. For a police department to do it as recently as fifteen years ago would have gotten it in big legal and financial trouble. No longer.
In this case, the newspaper had not only not published the story, it acted within the law to let the police know that someone might have illegally released confidential information to it. Proof of this can be heard during an August 7, 2023 Marion city council meeting, where Kari Newell rose to complain about the release of her information, and both council members and Eric Meyer of the Marion County Record state unequivocally that they did not obtain the information (it was sent to them) and they have not released it to anyone else and have been working with the police on the issue.
Despite this public testimony, the police and Newell decided to move against the newspaper in a manner no different that a gang of thugs.
Moreover, it appears that the police were acting as the hired thugs of this particular restaurateur, with the help of a local judge, Laura Viar, who signed the search warrant.
There were innumerable decent and moral ways to have handled this that would have both protected the newspaper and the confidential information of Kari Newell, especially because the newspaper was clearly not planning on using that information and wanted to cooperate with the police. A raid and ransacking of a newspaper and the homes of its owner and reporters however was not one of them.
The newspaper plans a federal lawsuit, since this raid apparently violated a number of laws that specifically protect news outlets and their sources. I hope it sues not only the local government, but the specific police officers, including Marion Police Department Chief Gideon Cody, who participated in this Gestapo-like raid, which Danny Karon, a professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, described it “like a scene out of 1945 Nazi Germany.” These thugs should be made to pay, and most certainly be removed from law enforcement. They not only don’t understand their jobs, they have no concept of the fundamental principles on which the United States was established.
One more point: It is exactly this type of behavior by police that contributes to the belief by many that they abuse their power all the time, against minorities as well as against individuals who oppose those in power. If the police want any kind of public support they need to stop doing this.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Joan Meyer, now dead because of police raid
On August 11, 2023 the entire police department of Marion, Kansas, performed a Gestapo-like raid of the home of 98-year-old Joan Meyer, co-owner of the local newspaper, the Marion County Record, resulting in her death from a heart attack the next day.
The elderly woman, who co-owned the newspaper with her son Eric, was subjected to the raid by five officers and two sheriff’s deputies on Friday – which caused her to be ‘stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief.’ Eric, 69, has bashed the officers for their ‘Gestapo’ tactics in an attempt to seize information that hadn’t even gone to presses yet. Police have defended their actions.
Ms Meyer could not eat or sleep after the traumatizing hours-long ordeal. She was crying while the police raided her home and took her Alexa smart speaker – and died one day later. [emphasis mine]
It appears the police also that day raided the newspaper’s offices as well as the home of one of its reporters.
And why? All the evidence suggests this is a case of a local businesswoman working in teamwork with the police and a local judge to harass and destroy a newspaper. From the second link:
According to Meyer, a retired University of Illinois journalism professor, the raid came after a confidential source leaked sensitive documents to the newspaper about local restaurateur Kari Newell. The source, Meyer said, provided evidence that Newell had been convicted of DUI and was driving without a license—a fact that could spell trouble for her liquor license and catering business.
Meyer, however, said he ultimately decided not to publish the story about Newell after questioning the motivations of the source. Instead, he said, he alerted the police about the information. “We thought we were being set up,” Meyer said about the confidential information.
If Newell hoped to keep her DUI and illegal driving out of the public scrutiny by setting the police on this newspaper, she has failed horribly. Instead, these goon-like tactics — resulting in the death of an old woman — have encouraged every media source nationwide to publicize it.
Moreover, this was an a priori attack. This term was once known by every American, when freedom of speech and the rule of law dominated our culture. The government and police were not allowed to take an action unless a crime had actually been committed. It was considered not only illegal to act against someone because that person might commit a crime, it was considered immoral and unethical. For a police department to do it as recently as fifteen years ago would have gotten it in big legal and financial trouble. No longer.
In this case, the newspaper had not only not published the story, it acted within the law to let the police know that someone might have illegally released confidential information to it. Proof of this can be heard during an August 7, 2023 Marion city council meeting, where Kari Newell rose to complain about the release of her information, and both council members and Eric Meyer of the Marion County Record state unequivocally that they did not obtain the information (it was sent to them) and they have not released it to anyone else and have been working with the police on the issue.
Despite this public testimony, the police and Newell decided to move against the newspaper in a manner no different that a gang of thugs.
Moreover, it appears that the police were acting as the hired thugs of this particular restaurateur, with the help of a local judge, Laura Viar, who signed the search warrant.
There were innumerable decent and moral ways to have handled this that would have both protected the newspaper and the confidential information of Kari Newell, especially because the newspaper was clearly not planning on using that information and wanted to cooperate with the police. A raid and ransacking of a newspaper and the homes of its owner and reporters however was not one of them.
The newspaper plans a federal lawsuit, since this raid apparently violated a number of laws that specifically protect news outlets and their sources. I hope it sues not only the local government, but the specific police officers, including Marion Police Department Chief Gideon Cody, who participated in this Gestapo-like raid, which Danny Karon, a professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, described it “like a scene out of 1945 Nazi Germany.” These thugs should be made to pay, and most certainly be removed from law enforcement. They not only don’t understand their jobs, they have no concept of the fundamental principles on which the United States was established.
One more point: It is exactly this type of behavior by police that contributes to the belief by many that they abuse their power all the time, against minorities as well as against individuals who oppose those in power. If the police want any kind of public support they need to stop doing this.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Related: No need for anyone to think anymore:
ARE YOU BEGINNING TO SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING?
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/are-you-beginning-to-see-where-this-is-going
“I made a point the other day about how the battle, the struggle, whether it is in politics or football was necessary, even essential in order to determine what was what, who won and who will dominate the agenda and lead.”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/the-future-of-the-republican-party-and-america
“In our system that “physical” confrontation, that struggle in politics forces those politically empowered players to reveal in some great measure the truth to the public and the public in the end indicates who has played the game best, who won and who leads. And that is objectively where reason, fairness, freedom and prosperity for the individual exists.”
And here we have a clarifying 40 second video clip of Sergey Brin, American billionaire business magnate best known for co-founding Google, talking with World Economic Forum founder, Klause Schwab: https://youtu.be/Pjpmh_iG9PE
Paying attention yet?
I detect the stench of 1509-1547. A period of abuse of power and law and theft of property not fully addressed until 1776 and 1791, and yes 1865;
if you will let me focus on the english speaking world.
In addition to firing all of the officers involved, the voters in that county need to sign a recall petition to remove that judge! It can be done & it must be done. Laura Viar should be removed from the bench right away!
Judge Laura Viar is a magistrate judge in the 8th district in Kansas — she was elected in 2022 per that court’s webpage (https://8thjd.com/248/Honorable-Laura-E-Viar).
Per Ballotopedia, apparently she’s in a district that does ‘assisted appointments’, in which a local judicial nominating commission consisting of non-lawyers and lawyers who live in the district present a list of three to five names to the governor who selects an appointment. Non-lawyer members are appointed by local county commissions and lawyers are elected by fellow lawyers in the judicial district. Newly appointed judges serve for at least one year, after which they must stand for retention in the next even-year general election. If retained, the judge serves a four-year term and must stand for retention every four years after that point to remain in office.
Since her first term is listed as 2022, she should come up for her first retention election in 2024.
And that’s the time for the good citizens of the 8th district to remember what she did.
I’m trying to understand this incident. 1) Who is Kari Edwards? 2) Wouldn’t a DUI conviction be a matter of public record? 3) Unless the newspaper was blackmailing Kari Newell, wouldn’t they be within their rights to publish that information? I think I read elsewhere that they were able to corroborate the information by checking a government database. 4) Just what crime are they being charged with?
I don’t think we’re getting the whole story (and I’m skeptical it will look better for the police when my questions are answered).
mkent: The reason you are confused is my mistake. For some reason (related I think to my age), I started to type Kari Newell as “Kari Edwards.” Don’t ask me why, only my fingers know.
I have corrected the essay.
My questions however were the same as yours. If you click on the city council meeting link, which is cued to when Newell begins speaking, you can hear that both the council members and Meyers state — after Newell finishes her comments — that they have not released any information because of concerns its release would violate her rights, being personal information. We do not know what that information is, and regardless, that they were not releasing it suggests there was no reason at all to raid anyone.
It seems to me that both Newell, the judge, and the police overreacted, with most of the blame to the police and judge. Cooler heads should have prevailed.
This reminds me of the incident regarding a Biden family member’s diary. It was found and then given to Project Veritas. They decided against publishing it, and turned it in. And yet it was used as a cause to raid the Veritas offices, as well as the home of its director.
Sippin_bourbon: Yeah, ain’t the parallels interesting? Any excuse to raid, imprison, censor, blackball, and even cause the death of one’s opponents: The new imperative of people in this country.
More to the story?
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2023/08/14/kansas-newspaper-raided-police-investigating-chiefs-misconduct-allegations/
One of the insidious things the leftist thugs do is use their constantly changing rules to terrify and dehumanize people.
I read a biography of Maximilian Kolbe, the Franciscan friar who was put to death at Auschwitz. The author interviewed a witness who described life in the camp and how people avoided making eye contact with others so as not to draw attention to yourself, and not talking to people because you never knew who you could trust. So everyone in the camp would walk around silently looking down at the ground. It was intentionally dehumanizing. Then the witness described how Kolbe walked through the camp like he was walking down a city sidewalk on a Sunday afternoon, casually smiling at people and saying “hello” to everyone he passed.
WHERE POLITICAL WARFARE MUST BE FOUGHT AND WON
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/where-political-warfare-must-be-fought-and-won
“I’m not a Republican. I’m not a Trump supporter, but I care deeply about the Constitution. I care deeply about preserving the rule of law, and we’re seeing it being frittered away for partisan political purposes,” said Alan Dershowitz.
Georgia is where political warfare must be fought and won.
What we are witness to today in our American politics where the legal and justice system is being weaponized against one party’s greatest threat to their what can only be characterized as growing authoritarian rule policies and mandates.
ALL of the charges launched against the Democrat party machines prime political enemy are ALL desperate moves ALL designed in the end to destroy the Constitution and in the end run your and your family’s freedom and lives forever. The exact opposite of the intent of the Constitution.
Candidates in political contests contesting questionable elections is their duty and that process is called politics. And when one political party in their desperation, in their ideological un and anti-American beliefs turn politics no matter how contentious into a criminal offence is an offence to every American and if allowed to continue portends doom for America and the world.
(For example: “The Muskegon Cover-Up: Gateway Pundit Investigators Visit Registration Fraud Epicenter and Find FBI Has Stalled Investigation and Silenced Officials, No Prosecutions in 3 Years”.
Prosecutions of voter fraud schemes in primarily Democrat party-controlled districts throughout the country were not in line apparently with the political agenda that desperately needed to discredit Trump and his (also my) concerns about the many places where cheating both legal and illegal was plainly underway during the 2020 presidential election. If not for cheating both legal and illegal there is one political party in America that would rarely be politically empowered. They have to do it, and they are very good at it.)
The problem with these kind of blanket fabricated offences to the Constitution our legal system and justice, freedom of speech and freedom of choice is it becomes a double-edged sword where those charged will be able to bring into the court and reveal to all the many irregularities and plainly corrupt actions in Georgia and the country. (If the judge allows them to actually defend themselves that is.)
ALL of these cases against political freedom and our American system will in total be found to be unconstitutional and will be reversed in the appeals process. But that end result and the defeat of these desperate charges is not the point.
What is the point? Strategically remove from future political contention for president the main contender who threatens the now plain to see desperate politically driven at any cost political warriors of the Democrat party machine and their agenda. They have transformed themselves in their political desperation into un and anti-Americans. Which is the ultimate nature of these kinds of subjectively based political movements and ideologies. All subjectively based political movements can result only in one thing, authoritarian rule. Socialism in other words. America is not Socialist.
What does the American Constitution first structure? Political warfare. And so let the battle take place and, in that process, reveal to the people some degree of truth so they can determine the direction of THEIR country.
Politicians and those who support and protect them in their political tribes are not required to tell the truth to the public, that is not their job. Their job is to win, dominate and lead. And that false expectation of politicians telling the truth and living within certain parameters of good behavior is a misunderstanding by those in the Pedestrian Realm who believe that they are required to tell them the truth. The Constitution is however structured to over time reveal what those who are politically empowered by the people are trying to hide.
What is the truth? Understand better what is going on here: STRATEGY OVER MORALITY (sigma3ioc.com)
Let the political warfare rage because in the end we will all over time find the truth and our direction. Lawyers, Courts and money! The question remains, can you handle the truth? https://youtu.be/PWSx0bBiNIs
PS: Remembering of course, there are no guarantees. The only solution? YOU!
Are you paying attention yet America? JGL 8/15/23