"While many will dismiss this story as "local politics turned nasty," I think it's worth taking a second look here because the situation being described in this piece, sits at the intersection of two important forces that aren't really being covered in for-profit media very well, but can and will continue to impact your life. Specifically the police being the biggest fascist gang around, and the authoritarian turn in our society being directed by politicians and court officials who feel beholden to nobody, and fear no consequences for doing fascist nonsense whatsoever:
The short story here is, a confidential source contacts a local paper in Kansas with incriminating documents about a powerful local restaurant owner who had kicked the paper's reporters out of a public forum with Jake LaTurner, GOP fascist congressman. The paper verifies the info as true, but smells something off, and CONTACTS the police, without running the story. The restaurant owner then complains publicly at a city council meeting that the newspaper had "illegally obtained and disseminated sensitive documents" - which they objectively did NOT do; they never ran the story. Naturally, this then forces the paper to do exactly what the local big-wheel just accused them of doing in the public sphere; print everything.
The *very* next day, every cop in town (no really) shows up at the paper with a bogus, blatantly fucking illegal warrant provided by yet another crony, this time a judge, and proceeds to take literally everything the paper needs to do their jobs - computers, cellphones, records, the whole shebang. The paper has vowed to continue publishing, but as the owner of the outlet notes - this is very clearly authoritarian meddling with the press of the kind that rubes don't believe happens in America. Some of you are going to say things like "I don't understand why they think they'd get away with it," but the whole point is that they already have - the message "don't you dare fuck with us" has already been sent, and their critics are already on the backfoot just trying to publish. The GOP/official fascists in this town are not going to win down the line in court, but they don't care - and because they will suffer no consequences for these actions at all, not the cops, not the politically powerful restaurant owner, not the GOP fascist, or the pig judge, it does not matter to them that none of this will hold up in court, long term. Maybe someone sues the state, who gives a crap? They certainly don't and they won't pay the settlement themselves at all.
That I think, is the key takeaway here if I'm being honest. You can cling to the standards and norms, to rights-based discourse, to a legal system that might somewhere down the line get the answer right. But you don't get to call that justice, and you don't get to pretend that this is doing anything to stop official fascists in power all across the country, from just trying it, and progressing their venomous ideology and ongoing power grab, because they can. The cops went along with this because they're fascists, and they have no accountability. The judge too. They don't care. They're not afraid of your systems because your systems are not built to punish official fascists and affluent people with political connections. You can't "kinda, sorta, but not really" make this right, down the line, and pretend the fash aren't still winning; no matter how often they eventually lose in court."
#Fascism #Kansas #Media #GOPfascists
