The police chief who led an August raid on a small weekly newspaper in central Kansas has resigned, days after he was suspended from his post.

The police chief who led an August raid on a small weekly newspaper in central Kansas resigned Monday, just days after he was suspended from his post and following the release of body camera video of the raid showing an officer searching the desk of a reporter investigating the chief’s past.

Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody’s resignation was confirmed to The Associated Press both by Mayor Dave Mayfield and City Council member Ruth Herbel, following an announcement by Mayfield at Monday’s council meeting. Mayfield had suspended Cody on Thursday for reasons that have not been made public. In a text message Monday night to the AP, he said he couldn’t answer questions about the chief’s resignation “as it is a personnel matter.”

Cody stepped down weeks after a local prosecutor said that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to justify the search of the Marion County Record or searches at the same time of the publisher’s home and Herbel’s home.

  • GONADS125@lemmy.world
    181·
    1 year ago

    So justification thru whataboutism?

    Fuck the police, but also fuck eroding our constitutional rights…

      • GONADS125@lemmy.world
        12·
        1 year ago

        Listen man, I’m no supporter of the police… I have worked for years with the population that is fucked over by the criminal justice system and stuck in the revolving door. I have known good police fucked over and forced out by corruption and dirty piece of shit cops. The criminal justice system is systemically racist and in need of so much reform.

        And I’m angry and pissed off about it too. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have calculated responses instead of calling for things that ultimately undermine our rights and would possibly allow for worse treatment of US citizens by the justice system.

        And because there are so many emotions tied into this problem (and justifiably so when there are unaccountable murders and rapists with badges and impunity), people on the same side of the issue become at odds when discussing approaches to address the issue.

        This is not directed at you [Edit: actually it 100% is!] (certainly other users), but there is a significant amount of people who make actual societal change harder because of the fact that they are emotionally reasoning with great rigidity. They will be at the throats of other people on the same side, any time the smallest disagreement arises.

        Look at the childish responses I received by the top commenter [yourself], despite the fact that I agree with their sentiment. But because I disagreed with one aspect, they became emotional and created a wedge between people on the same side of the issue.

        I’m pissed off and want retribution, not just an end. I want to feel that visceral satisfaction imagining an eye-for-an-eye justice inflicted on these sick pieces of shit. But I am not so emotional and deluded that I can’t remain in the real world and focus on realistic goals and movements.