A woman who makes her living in Rio Arriba County extolling the virtues of living here and promoting local businesses and the good quality of life in Espanola shocked us this week.
“I admire how fearless your paper is,” she said. “You call it like you see it with controversy and there are a lot of people out there who agree with your strong stands.”
Since we weren’t taking notes or recording the conversation, we’ve paraphrased her compliment.
It’s not something we hear often, particularly from people who want to boast about the virtues of life in this while seeking safe harbor from the dark corner of truth sometimes found here in local politics.
The exchange was fortifying and inspirational.
It was also apt in a week when journalists and private citizens everywhere are horrified at what happened last Friday in Marion County, Kansas, where the offices and homes of co-owners of the weekly newspaper, The Marion County Record, were raided and authorities seized computers, servers and cellphones as well as private and sensitive documents.
Co-owners of the Marion County Record, 98-year-old Joan Meyer, and her son Eric, 69, were subjected to harassment, intimidation and fear, to say nothing of the abridgment of freedom of speech and the rights of a free press.
The resulting stress was so great it is presumed to be the cause of Joan Meyer’s death on Saturday, Aug. 5.
She had answered her door the previous day expecting her Meals on Wheels delivery. What greeted her instead of food were officers from the Marion County Police Department. The entire police department conducted the raids and property seizures. Police Chief Gideon Cody also participated.
Joan Meyer died after a night of being unable to eat or sleep.
Police Chief Cody, 54, is being investigated by the newspaper for allegations of sexual misconduct when he was a police officer in Kansas City, Missouri. A total of six persons has contacted the paper with the allegations against Chief Cody.
The newspaper is in the midst of reporting and investigating not only the police chief but also Kari Newell, owner of a local restaurant who may be ineligible to obtain a liquor license for the restaurant she bought. The newspaper was probing details of her 2008 drunken driving conviction.
The police didn’t just try to chill free speech and press rights but instead hit the newspaper and its owners with an arctic blast, leaving it colder and frozen like an iceberg.
For those of us who gather and report news for a living this outrageous abuse of power by law enforcement was terrifying. It should be no less frightening to the public, the ordinary citizens who depend on us to keep them informed.
Could it happen here? We believe so. It could happen anywhere in this country but especially in a town or city where the newspaper is aggressive in exercising free speech and freedom of the press, demanding open government and uncovering the truth about corrupt government officials who act as if they are entitled to answer only to themselves.
If the police knock down your door, whether you are a private citizen or a journalist, who would you call for help? Your phone has been confiscated and even if you still had one, you can’t phone the police. They’re the ones committing a crime against you.
Citizens across the country are up in arms and defiantly indignant over the incident involving the Meyers and the unlawful raid on their newspaper. This is the stuff of third world countries and dictatorships. It is not supposed to happen in America but in truth it has been happening here and abroad for centuries. Mrs. Meyer is not the first journalist to die while trying to find the truth.
Haughtily and smugly, the Marion Police Department has defended its actions on Facebook. The department as a body and its members as individuals apparently haven’t read the U.S. Constitution. In this case the law is not above the law. These officers are expected to uphold the law, not ignore it. Chief Cody and his officers should hang their heads in shame and post a contrite group photo on Facebook.
Locally, we are emboldened by persons such as the woman who visited our offices this week and thanked us for our aggressive reporting and commentary that exposes and criticizes the wrongdoings of public officials who violate the public’s trust.
The Rio Grande SUN mourns the death of Mrs. Meyer and every journalist who has died in the line of duty digging for the truth and calling out the thugs and bullies who would stomp on our rights.