Accountability in Marion County

I’ve driven through Marion County dozens of times. It has always struck me as the prototypical, quintessential rural Kansas county.

An aging and dwindling population, Romanesque limestone courthouse taking up an entire city block in the county seat, production agriculture-based economy, mom and pop shops on Main Street, the Marion High School Warriors under the Friday night lights.

The human beings behind all those enterprises hit me similarly. Salt of the earth, give you the shirt off their back, Kansas nice, love your neighbor, 4-H, FFA, Farm Bureau.

People grounded in faith. For generations in that part of Kansas, Catholics and their deeds-driven notion of salvation took a back seat to Mennonites, who believe service stems from salvation. Over the decades, Marion County’s goings-on manifested themselves in a comfortable, predictable pattern with little desire, much less expectation, to change.

The bake sale succeeded last year, didn’t it? Why, we were able to upgrade our choir robes for the first time in years.   

When the Marion County Commission this week agreed to shell out a $3 million judgment stemming from a police raid on the Marion County Record newsroom two years ago, it created the time and space to ponder the notion of change.

The false premise of the raid was that a reporter had committed identity theft by looking up a driving record in a public database. Local cops seized computers and reporters’ personal cellphones, all outside the scope of a search warrant.

It begged the question, did law enforcement and those to whom they report, know they were violating not only state and federal laws that protect journalists, but the U.S. Constitution?

Apparently not, according to the statement released by the Marion County commission. “This likely would not have happened if established law had been reviewed and applied prior to the execution of the warrants.” 

Which, in itself, is troubling.

If the elected leaders of local government, if those in the judicial system allowed this attack on freedom of the press, do we the people have a role to right the wrong? Is it our job, as voters and taxpaying citizens to hold accountable those who should have known better?       

You can argue Marion County taxpayers won’t foot the bill since the county’s insurance will cover the $3 million, but some combination of higher taxes or diminished services will follow the inevitable hike in county insurance premiums. The saga doesn’t end here. Claims against the city government and civil action remain pending. 

You can blame ignorance, bad judgement and zealousness on the part of Marion County law enforcement. I suspect a little bit of all three were mixed up in their motivation. As messy as it has been, solace can be taken in the outcome. The system worked. 

We live in an era when the president of the United States blows through Constitutional norms every day. That doesn’t mean it’s right, but it does provide cover to those who don’t think critically about the upshot.

Maybe we should think a little deeper about our role in electing those generous enough to put their name on a ballot. Those whom we trust to do right by us, to manage the affairs of the community with prudence and common sense. To uphold the Constitution.

What happened in Marion County could be a case study in J-school (and law school) on freedom of the press. But it can also be lifted up in the public dialogue as a wakeup call.

Maybe it’s time for a change in the way we think about the boundaries and norms we have taken for granted for nearly 250 years.

Maybe we can no longer assume those we the people put in positions of local authority understand right from wrong.

Maybe we should all pay a little bit more attention to what’s happening in our own communities.     

Mike Matson’s column appears every other weekend in The Mercury, and he hosts ‘Within Reason,’ weekdays at 9 a.m. on NewsRadio KMAN.