The police raided a Kansas newspaper.

There are few more chilling sentences.

Last week, all five of Marion County, Kansas’ police officers and two sheriff’s deputies raided their local weekly newspaper, The Marion County Record, as well as the homes of the publisher, Eric Meyer, a Record reporter, and a city councilwoman. Police took computers, cell phones, and other items they had no business taking.

This is a chilling and extremely rare event, the government raid of a newspaper. Historically, legal authorities respect the protections afforded to news-gathering organizations, though those protections have come under fire. As I tell journalism students: Journalists are not special, but what they do absolutely is, and the courts and the Constitution are careful to protect journalists’ ability to gather and disseminate information. If information is required by a government entity, then a subpoena is an option, though if anonymity has been promised to a source and a subpoena is issued to gain information on same, the journalist is prepared to go to jail rather than reveal sources. A promise is a promise is a promise.

Freedom of the press is part of our First Amendment for a reason. If government entities start raiding newsrooms, that has a chilling effect on journalists being able to do their jobs. Said Eric Meyer, the co-owner, publisher, and a retired journalism professor, of the officers who conducted the raid:

They showed up like the Gestapo.

After the raid, Joan Meyer, the 98-year old co-owner of the newspaper who lived with her son, died. Her family said her death was hastened by the shock of the raid.

The raid supposedly was in response to information supplied to the newspaper by an anonymous source. The newspaper, which operates about an hour north of Wichita, opted not to publish a story based on that information about Marion restaurant owner, Kari Newell, who according to court records has been convicted of drunk driving, and she has been driving without a license. The story only emerged after Newell accused the newspaper at a (public) city council meeting of illegally obtaining her (public) court records. The Record then ran a story about the council meeting.

Her restaurant, Kari’s Kitchen, is carefully moderating comments on Facebook, which is probably a good idea right about now.

Earlier, Newell kicked members of the press out of her restaurant, which was hosting a public forum with U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-Kansas). And then Newell took to social media to lambast the reporters.

The press has descended, including the New York Times, which ran the story on Sunday with the most Timesy of headlines:

This more than “raises free press concerns.” This shits all over the free press. The sight of a bunch of police officers loading up computers and phones is the antithesis of a free press.

You could dismiss all this as a sad little fascist-in-training story, but the raid was authorized by a real judge, Laura Viar, and while you may wonder what Constitution she’s reading, Viar, Newell, Joel Ensey (the county attorney), and the various police organizations involved in the raid are taking it in the teeth right now. That’s as it should be, but in situations like this, angry tweets and rude Yelp reviews are not enough. People should lose their jobs.

But tuck yourself in tonight knowing that everyone on the wrong side of the awful story is getting the full treatment. The police chief was a Kansas City police captain and the Record had started an investigation about some suspected improprieties. Ensey’s brother owns the hotel where Newell operates her restaurant. Newell, who issued a patently false explanation of events on Facebook, is ducking reporters. And now we all know she drove drunk and she drove after her license was suspended. Welcome to the show, Kari.

As for the Record, their online subscription rates are entirely reasonable.