During Reason<\/em>‘s annual Webathon<\/a>, in which we ask our most loyal customers to consider making a\u00a0tax-deductible donation<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0501(c)3 nonprofit<\/a> that makes our print and pixels and audio and visuals possible, it has become a tradition to showcase a category of our work that, perhaps counter-intuitively for the purposes of fundraising, has the very worst effects on end-user blood pressure.<\/p>\n

I am talking, of course, about those many, many, MANY cases of undeserving individuals tasting the crushing boot of an unforgiving state. Pop your favorite beta blocker, keep your tranquilizers, and prepare to emit steam. BUT FIRST!<\/p>\n

Thanks to a generous challenge grant from Reason Torchbearer Daniel Shuchman, every $1 you donate turns into $2 until the little orange-box thingie gets to $439,000.<\/p>\n

Won’t you please donate to Reason<\/em> right the hell now?<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

“This is your chance,” Reason<\/em> Senior Editor Jacob Sullum tweeted<\/a> Friday, near the bottom of an infuriating thread<\/a>, “to take a stand against vengeful officials who abuse the law to punish people for constitutionally protected speech.”<\/p>\n

Sullum was referencing a piece that Reason<\/em> began covering way back in 2017<\/a>, continuing all the way to last month<\/a>: A citizen-journalist in Laredo, Texas, named Priscilla Villarreal, was arrested and charged with two felony counts of “misuse of official information” for the journalistically (and constitutionally) basic act<\/a> of asking cops for factual details about some deadly incidents. Villarreal’s case, in which the rights-offending officers have been protected by the odious legal doctrine of Qualified Immunity<\/a>, has gone all the way up to the Supreme Court (Sullum joined a court brief<\/a> in her support).<\/p>\n

Watch Billy Binion’s video report<\/a> about Villarreal’s case, and note that, as Sullum says<\/a>, “Given the tendency of cops and prosecutors to abuse the law in service of grudges against people who annoy them, there are bound to be more cases like these, and you can be confident that Reason <\/em>will be there to explain the stakes.”<\/p>\n