Marion Police Department is now under criticism after raiding the newsroom and the home of the publisher and editor of the Marion County Record.

After conducting a raid on a local newspaper’s offices and the house of its publisher and owner, Marion Police Department has come under criticism from a number of press freedom watchdogs. This action was seen as a flagrant breach of the American Constitution’s protection of the freedom of the press.

The Marion Police Department’s actions were denounced by a number of watchdogs for press freedom as a flagrant breach of American law. Eric Meyer, editor, and publisher of the Marion County Record, worked with his staff on Sunday to reassemble articles, advertisements, and other materials for its upcoming edition on Wednesday. He acquired time in the afternoon to give a nearby funeral home details regarding his mother Joan, the paper’s co-owner.

According to The Marion County Record’s own published reports, police executed a search warrant before entering the newspaper’s office on Friday and removing all of its equipment, including cellphones, computers, a file server, and staff members’ personal mobile phones. The Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody allegedly grabbed a reporter’s phone out of her hand, causing her to harm her finger.

Eric Meyer, the publisher, and co-owner of the newspaper, reported that police simultaneously invaded his home and seized laptops, his phone, and the internet router. 

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Record co-owner Joan Meyer, 98, who shared a home with her son, collapsed and passed away on Saturday, according to Meyer, who put her death down to the stress of the home invasion.

According to Meyer, a recent article on Kari Newell, a proprietor of a nearby restaurant, may have served as the impetus for the attack. Meyer and a newspaper reporter were at Newell’s restaurant to cover a public event for the U.S. Republican representative for the region, Rep. Jake LaTurner. T when she called the Marion Police Department to have them removed. 

The Marion Police Department featured the event on its Facebook page, and the police chief and other authorities were there and honored at the reception.

Meyer also mentioned that the publication was investigating the chief of the Marion Police Department’s history and the reasons he departed the Kansas City, Missouri, police department prior to his April appointment.

Cody, the chief of Marion Police Department,  defended the raid on Sunday, by sending in an email to The Associated Press that Subpoenas are typically required under federal law, not merely a search warrant in raiding a newsroom, there is a rare exception if there is a basis to think the journalist has played part in the underneath unlawful conduct.

What exactly the alleged wrongdoing constituted was not explained by Cody.

In response to inquiries regarding whether the Marion Police Department submitted a probable cause affidavit for the search warrant, Cody, who was appointed as Marion Police Department’s chief in late April after serving in the Kansas City police for 24 years, remained silent. In addition, he evaded inquiries concerning the police’s theory of Newell’s victimization.

The local prosecutor’s office, the judge who approved the search warrant, and the Marion Police Department all overstepped their bounds, according to press freedom and human rights organizations.

According to Sharon Brett, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, the raid appears as one of the most intrusive police raids of a media outlet in quite a time, he added that the incident appears like somewhat of a concerning abuse of power.

In a statement, the Freedom of the Press Foundation’s director of advocacy, Seth Stern, claimed that the raid seemed to have breached federal law, the First Amendment, as well as fundamental human decency.

Press freedom organizations and other news organizations have reportedly offered Meyer a ton of assistance, but Meyer claims that what he and his crew really need is more time in the day to finish producing their next issue.

He and Newell are both thinking of filing legal claims, Newell against the newspaper and Meyer against the government agents who orchestrated the raid.

In response to claims that the raid violated First Amendment rights, Newell asserted that her private rights have been violated and that they are just equally significant as anyone else’s.

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