“Get out of my house”: Video shows 98-year-old Kansas newspaper owner standing up to cops raiding her home – National & International News – TUE 22Aug2023

Video shows Kansas newspaper owner, 98, confronting cops raiding her home.

African Union leaves door open for military intervention in Niger – Prigozhin appears to resurface in Mali.

NATIONAL NEWS

“Get out of my house”: Video shows 98-year-old Kansas newspaper owner standing up to cops raiding her home

On August 11, police officers in Marion, KS, raided the offices of the local newspaper, The Marion County Record, as well as the home of the newspapers’ joint owners, Eric Meyer and his 98-year-old mother Joan. The case has put the town of less than 2000 at the center of a nationwide outcry against improper police targeting of a news organization.

The full story of what happened and what led to the raids has taken a few days to come together, though there are some aspects that we can still only speculate about. A confidential source tipped off journalists at The Record about the DUI record of a local politically-connected restaurant owner. This record and an accusation that the restauranteur had continued to drive on a suspended license would have been sufficient to have her liquor license revoked. The paper did verify the accusation using publicly-available sources, but ultimately decided not to do anything with the story. 

The restauranteur later claimed at a city council meeting that The Record had illegally obtained sensitive documents about her and disseminated them, a claim which is not supported by the facts. Nevertheless, a local judge gave police a search warrant to raid the office and the Meyers’ private home on this flimsy pretext of identity theft. The police seized computers and other electronics, including personal cell phones, belonging to the newspaper and its owners and employees. The seizure enormously complicated the work of the paper’s small staff to get their weekly edition out the following week.

“Does your mother love you?”

Today, footage from the Meyer home came to light of 98-year-old Joan Meyer confronting officers during the raid. You can see the video here.

Clad in a dressing gown and moving vigorously around with her walker, Ms. Joan yells at the cops to “Get out of my house” and calls them assholes. She then approaches one of the officers and asks “Does your mother love you?” and “Do you love your mother?”. Then she calls the officers assholes once again and demands to know what they’re doing. When one of the officers asked her how many computers she had in the home, she said bluntly, “I’m not going to tell you”.

That day, an incensed Ms. Joan spoke to The Wichita Eagle, comparing the raid to “Hitler tactics“.

Sadly, the otherwise healthy Joan Meyer died of cardiac arrest the very next day. Her son Eric has directly blamed the stress of the police raid for his mother’s death.

Community rallies around The Record

As the facts stand now, there is nothing to suggest anyone at The Record did anything illegal. In fact, the local prosecutor said last week that there had been insufficient evidence to justify the raid and called for the seized devices to be returned. The paper has since gotten most of their devices back, but some have been sent to a forensic examiner to determine whether any of the files had been copied.

Eric Meyer says he believes the real reason for the raids as an ongoing investigation by The Record into why Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody left his previous post as a police captain in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Kansas City, MO, police department has been mired in numerous scandals in recent years. This includes a Department of Justice investigation into racial discrimination and accusations KCPD failed to act on reports of missing women, until one woman escaped her abductor’s basement last year after months of rape and torture.

The small town of Marion has rallied around its local newspaper and paid tribute to its late matriarch. Some locals have called on Chief Cody to resign. First Amendment advocates and legal experts across the country have condemned the raid as unconstitutional. Meanwhile, The Record’s subscriber numbers have gotten a big boost from supporters all over the world.

Despite all this scrutiny, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation continues to probe whether The Record did anything illegal. There’s no indication they plan to investigate whether Chief Cody obtained the warrant under false pretenses or the legality of the raid. Eric Meyer says he intends to sue the police department.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

African Union leaves door open for military intervention in Niger – Prigozhin appears to resurface in Mali

The African Union has come out against any military intervention in Niger by countries outside the continent, but left open the possibility of supporting intervention by neighboring countries. Ecowas (a smaller block of West African nations) previously vowed to invade Niger if a military junta that seized power there recently didn’t restore the democratically-elected president to power. Despite that ultimatum having lapsed weeks ago, there haven’t yet been any decisive moves. Niger’s junta remains in power and the country’s president Mohammed Barzoum remains under house arrest. 

Algeria, which shares a border with Niger, claims it recently denied a request by France to use its airspace to conduct a military operation. France has denied that any military operation is underway in the region. Ecowas has been in talks with other West African countries, including Nigeria, to recruit manpower. Niger and other junta-controlled nations in the area, including neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, are not wasting any time in mobilizing defenses.

Wagner chief Prigozhin in Mali

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, has released a video address for the first time since leading a short-lived mutiny in Russia earlier this summer. Perhaps recent rumors about his death were premature? Some outlets still seem to be hedging. The Guardian described the person in the video as someone who “appears to be” Prigozhin and said they were unable to confirm the source of the video or verify when it was filmed.

In the video, Prigozhin purports to be in Mali and says he’s recruiting for missions in Africa. Wagner has been supporting oppressive regimes in the Central African Republic and in parts of West Africa. The group’s fighters have been linked to mass killings and other human rights abuses in Africa.

There’s nothing to confirm that Wagner troops took part in Niger’s military coup. However, shortly after it happened, an audio message purporting to be from Prigozhin congratulated the junta and claimed that the coup was a defeat for Africa’s former European colonial oppressors. In the new video, Prigozhin said it was Wagner’s mission to make Africa “even more free”.