GREAT MOMENTS IN GANGSTER GOVERNMENT: Cops raid small Kansas newspaper in a disturbing attack on the free press.

Well, this is alarming. Local police recently raided a small Kansas newspaper, the Marion-County Ledger, in an incident that’s prompting warnings from free speech watchdogs.

On Friday, police raided the newspaper’s office, collecting computers, cellphones, and other data. They also raided the home of the paper’s 98-year-old co-founder, Joan Meyer, who was placed under tremendous stress and then died just a day later. (Her family suspects a connection between the stress and her death, but whether the two are directly related is currently unknown).

The Marion County Police Department said their raid was justified as part of an investigation into whether the paper had illegally obtained a document in its reporting on a local business owner. But to engage in this kind of raid as part of this kind of investigation is extraordinarily unusual, according to the nonpartisan Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

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