Video Shows 98-Year-Old Kansas Newspaper Owner Telling Off Police During Raid: ‘Does Your Mother Love You?’

A new video shows 98-year-old Joan Meyer defiantly telling police officers to leave her home while they search it as part of a controversial raid of the Marion County Record, a local weekly newspaper in rural Kansas. 

Meyer, who was a co-owner of the Kansas newspaper, died just one day after the police searched both her business and her house. Her son, Eric, who is also the editor and publisher of the paper, attributes her death to “stress beyond her limits,” caused by the raid. 

In the video footage, taken August 11 and released August 21 on the Marion County Record's YouTube page, Meyer rebuked the police officers for entering her home and going through what she said were personal papers. 

“Don’t you touch any of that stuff,” Meyer sternly told the seven men who came to her home. “This is my house, you assholes!”

The Marion police department claims that they initially raided the Marion County Record and the Meyer home to investigate how journalists obtained the driving records of local business owner Kari Newell.

The newspaper has maintained that they received the initial information through an anonymous tip and subsequently went through legal channels to gain more information. 

The raid has received national scrutiny, with many newspapers and free speech organizations characterizing the police actions as a violation of the First Amendment. 

At one point Meyer asked what the police officers were doing. 

“Well they’re working,” replied one of the officers. “This is what the judge said we’re supposed to take.” 

In the weeks following the police raid, the warrant they were given to search the house and the newspaper office was withdrawn. State officials have since verified that the newspaper obtained the public records using legal methods. 

According to the Marion County Record, this video footage of the police raiding Meyer’s home was taken by her security cameras, begins an hour-and-a-half into the raid and ends abruptly, following the police disconnecting her internet. It is reportedly one of 82 videos captured.

At one point Meyer, who stood supported by a walker, approached the police chief and directly questioned him.

“Does your mother love you,” she asked. “You’re an asshole.” 

Meyer instructed him to stand on the porch and repeatedly said that she did not want him in her house. None of the officers complied with her requests.