Our Opposition to the US Patriot Act

Judge Vanzetta P. McPherson, in ceremonies providing American
citizenship to immigrants, said to them, “The genius of America is not
that it is what it ought to be --  but that it continues to try to be
what it can be.”  And that is our job and what we must do.

The combination of officialdom zeal, national  hysteria, Congressional
apathy and the swiftness of  the Justice Department have visited on us
an entangling public law # 107-56, the USA Patriot Act.

Some say this law had been written long before September 11, 2001, but
most believe it came to be in the few days after the towers of the
World Trade Center fell.

The heart of the issue, according to conservatives, liberals and
constitutional scholars, is the effect that USA Patriot has already had
on issues of probable cause and due process, and that both of those
concepts would be further eroded if the so-called Patriot II were
adopted. The Justice Department and Attorney General John Ashcroft have
said repeatedly that Patriot II will become a part of their arsenal of
terrorism-fighting edicts.

ABC news has  reported that if adopted Patriot II would allow the
Justice Department to:

•wiretap a person for 15 days without a warrant;

•arrest people and provide no information to their family, the media or
their attorney until charges are brought, no matter how long that took;

•strip Americans of their citizenship for even unknowingly helping a
group that is connected to an organization deemed to be terrorist.

There is also no "sunset provision," for  Patriot II.

It would also make it a crime for people subpoenaed in connection with
an investigation being carried out under the Patriot Act to alert
Congress to any possible abuses committed by federal agents. Persons in
libraries and bookstores can be charged if they alert an individual
that the feds are looking into their reading or internet viewing
selections.

American Conservative Union Executive Director Stephen Thayer wants to
be sure that Congress takes into account the civil liberties of the
citizens and through their deliberations, reach the proper balance
between law enforcement and protecting citizens' rights."

Christopher Pyle, a former U.S. Army intelligence officer, put it a bit
more forcefully.

Pyle, who is now  a professor of political science, said, "I don't
think the Fourth Amendment exists anymore,( referring to the amendment
that prohibits unreasonable search and seizure and requires probable
cause for a search or arrest.) "I think it's been buried by the Patriot
Act in some of the court rulings that have been handed down. We need a
requiem mass for the Fourth Amendment, because it's gone."

Michael Hammond, a consultant with Gun Owners of America, which has
more than 200,000 members, said, "We have some serious concerns in that
some of our members are part of the so-called militia movement,"
Hammond said. "We're looking into whether our members or even the NRA
could be designated terrorists .”

The late Senator Paul Wellstone, passionatly argued that, “A politics
that is not sensitive to the concerns and circumstances of people’s
lives, a politics that does not speak to and include the people, is an
intellectually arrogant politics that deserves to fail.”

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither," wrote Benjamin Franklin in 1759.
Unfortunately, in the aftermath of September 11 2001, his very
prophetic words seem to have been forgotten by America's legislators.

The media  is also under attack. The FBI recently sent letters to a
handful of reporters who have written stories about the Lamo case --
whether or not they have actually interviewed Lamo. (Andrian Lamo  is a
hacker who has broken into numerous computers and has published their
vulnerabilities). The letters warn the reporters to expect subpoenas
for all documents relating to the hacker, including, their own notes,
e-mails, impressions, interviews with third parties, independent
investigations, privileged conversations and communications, off the
record statements, and expense and travel reports related to stories
about Lamo.

As of 10/1/2003, 181 municipalities, cities and 3 states have expressed
resolutions condemning the Patriot Act  as overstepping the
Consititution.

If the USA Patriot Act, is not condemned as negating the Constitution,
and Patriot II comes to be a reality, we are in real trouble in this
country. As of now, under the umbrella of Patriot I, the First
Amendment rights of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of
the press and the right to petition grievances against the government
are capable of being over-stepped and unavailable to the citizenry. The
Fourth Amendment rights of freedom from unreasonable search and seizure
and the freedom of our persons, house, papers and affects are in
jeopardy. The Seventh Amendment right to trial by jury can be suspended
and never granted to person easily deemed an enemy of the state.

In addition to those 600 or so persons held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
others are being held in this country pending charges and those person
have not been allowed access to an attorney.

All this has been cited to indicate the country’s opposition to the US
Patriot Act, and to the approaching, Patriot II, which is ready to
spring on Congress and the people when the time is ripe. Therefore, we
ask the City Council of the City of Yakima to adopt the following
resolution:

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