Someone shut down a newspaper last week. His name was Steve Cooley, and he’s the district attorney most voters — including me — chose two years ago because we thought he was the best man in the race.Now it looks like we were wrong.In shutting the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, Cooley violated one of the cardinal principles of the First Amendment. Then he said it wasn‘t his fault. Both the action and the denial were the deeds of a thug.After the three-hour closure, Cooley blamed the victim — “due to the initial refusal of the co-publisher of the paper to cooperate.” You’d think management had forced reporters and other employees onto the street, not — as was the case — D.A. investigators packing big handguns. Cooley continued, “This search had nothing to do with First Amendment issues as it relates to newsrooms.” The district attorney added, “This was a focused and narrow search. We were only requesting business documents for one transaction.”
Source: Senseless Steve | L.A. Weekly