Mississippi sheriff jails citizens secretly
Webster County (Miss.) Sheriff Phillip Smith has concealed the arrests and jailing of eight people, according to a story in The Webster Progress Times, claiming the secrecy is needed to protect an investigation. This is taking the "investigatory" exemption too far. Like in most states, Mississippi requires jail logs to be public to ensure that police do not secretly roust people out of a bed and imprison them without anyone knowing (something Stalin, Saddam Hussein and other dictators would like to do to political opponents, but generally frowned upon in most countries). Now, if information in police files made public would hurt an open investigation, that specific information could be kept secret, but the names of people jailed should remain public. Journalists (and citizens) should not tolerate this abuse of power and first step on a slippery slope toward totalitarianism.