ACLU calls out anti-protest provision in Patriot Act

As if there weren't enough to dislike about the Patriot Act, the ACLU is objecting to a little-noted provision that would give the Secret Service more power to arrest protesters at major events like the Olympics or political conventions.

The Secret Service is [currently] authorized to charge suspects with breaching security or disruptive behavior at National Special Security Events, but only if the president or another person under the protection of the service is in attendance, according to a legislative summary.

The [new] bill adds language prohibiting people from "willfully and knowingly" entering a restricted area "where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting." The measure also applies to security breaches "in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance," according to the bill.

Penalties for such violations would increase from six months to a year in prison.

To the ACLU, the changes would open the door to even tighter security restrictions at major events and would subject protesters to harassment from federal law enforcement officers. The Bush administration has come under sharp criticism from liberal and civil-liberties groups for disputed arrests and security measures at presidential events.

"It's cementing the trend of the Secret Service basically acting to arrest or harass or control dissenters, and now not just at presidential events but at other events," said Timothy H. Edgar, the ACLU's national security counsel. [WaPo]

According to Kos diarist Ben Masel:

Section 602 makes holding an un-authorised sign at a Democratic or Republican National Convention, a Presidential, VP, or Candidate appearance, and any other event designated by the Secret Service as a "national special security event". a felony punishable by a year imprisonment. A not much more farfetched interpretation would have made felons of the entire Wisconsin Delegation to the 1968 Democratic Convention when Mayor Daley ruled them out of order for moving to adjourn the Convention and reconvene outside Daley's bailiwick.

Section 603 makes a seperate offence of entering the Convention (or other designated event) with forged credentials, possessing such, or even perhaps the time-honored tradition of passing ones' entry pass to a friend.

Straw poll: How many of us would have gotten arrested in the last year if these provisions had been in effect?

Comments

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

This has been a trend. In Miami and New York, around the most recent presidential elections and the WTO meetings, protest has been essentially made criminal.

"The right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances, shall not be infringed... until it becomes inconvenient."

Yet again, an Orwellian prediction (in Animal Farm, the written constitution, rewritten and patched over and finally ignored) is taken not as a warning, but as a blueprint.

[Matt Austern]

This bothers me a lot: it's one more instance of treating the US President not as a civil servant who has been given an important work assignment, but as a special entity who is entitled to deference from ordinary subjects. We're not supposed to have kings in this country, and our Presidents ought to stop acting like them.

[greensmile]

I wouldn't have gotten arrested, a few friends might have. That is clearly an abusable power given to the people who are clearly in a position to benefit politically from its abuse. Sheesh.

[SL]

Reid Joins Feingold on PATRIOT filibuster

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/12/14/135221/96

Reid has told aides he will vote against cloture -- a Senate procedure which requires that 60 senators support a bill being brought before the Senate before it is brought to a final vote. In essence, voting against cloture means supporting a filibuster.

"Senator Reid has several concerns including the National Security letters, the library provision, and some of the habeas corpus aspects which have nothing to do with terrorism," an aide told RAW STORY.

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

>The [new] bill adds language prohibiting people from "willfully and knowingly" entering a restricted area "where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting."

"or will be"? So, if the President plans to give a speech next year by Santa Cruz's clock tower in the public square at Pacific Garden Mall, then everyone in Santa Cruz that walks to the clock tower from the mall is a criminal?

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

Or if he eventually gives a speech at San Francisco's Union Square, or New York's Times Square, for instance, every passerby who comes by Times Square or Union Square beforehand is a criminal?

[Flint]

ARE YOU ON THEIR LIST?

“Is the Pentagon spying on Americans?”

Secret database obtained by NBC News tracks ‘suspicious’ domestic groups

By Lisa Myers, Douglas Pasternak, Rich Gardella and the NBC Investigative Unit
Updated: 6:18 p.m. ET Dec. 14, 2005

“WASHINGTON - A year ago, at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., a small group of activists met to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. What they didn't know was that their meeting had come to the attention of the U.S. military.

A secret 400-page Defense Department document obtained by NBC News lists the Lake Worth meeting as a “threat” and one of more than 1,500 “suspicious incidents” across the country over a recent 10-month period.

“This peaceful, educationally oriented group being a threat is incredible,” says Evy Grachow, a member of the Florida group called The Truth Project.
“This is incredible,” adds group member Rich Hersh. “It's an example of paranoia by our government,” he says. “We're not doing anything illegal.””
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10454316/

Crooks and Liars just posted the video on this from the countdown show:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/12/14.html#a6317

NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY YOU MUST SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE UNPATRIOTIC ACT??????

This administration has proven that it will do anything to destroy critics of its policies. Now you can see that they are collecting the names not of credible threats to this country but of ordinary citizens who have exercised their 1st Amendment Rights to dissent peacefully. The Department of Defense considers them “dangerous.”

The UNPATRIOTIC Act has passed in the House and the battle will now be fought in the Senate. The vote is coming up and if you want to preserve the Bill of Rights and your constitutional protections guaranteed by the 2nd and 4th Constitutional Amendments, and ultimately your first Amendment rights as well… you need to Act. Much of the faux compromise makes some of the worst parts of the UNPATRIOTIC Act permanent.

The threat to democracy that the UNPATRIOTIC Act represents is unparalleled in US history and that is why it is opposed by both conservative and liberal political action groups alike.

Call Your Senators Now: Last Chance to Stop Sham Patriot Act Reauthorization Bill
Find your Senator:
http://www.senate.gov/

Find Your Representative:
http://www.house.gov/
Petitions:
Conservative groups calling for a filibuster of the UNPATRIOTIC Act:

Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances:
Certain sections of this controversial law are due to expire December 31, 2005. Until recently, it appeared that lawmakers were moving toward adopting the modest checks on federal power contained in the Senate reauthorization bill (S.1389), which would require a connection to a suspected terrorist to obtain Americans’ records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. This reflected a commonsense compromise that was widely praised as a step in the right direction by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, representatives of the business community, civil liberties groups and – most importantly – the American public. But then, at the eleventh hour and behind closed doors, some Patriot Act conferees bowed to pressure from the Administration and produced a completely unacceptable conference report. However, the conferees still have a chance to fix the problems in the report and adopt the Senate reforms.

http://hq.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/PRCB/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1645

Liberal groups calling for a filibuster against the UNPATRIOTIC Act:

ACLU:
Our Call Alert allows you to look up and call your members of Congress and helps us to track the outcome of the call. It also allows you to tell you friends about the alert to help generate even more calls.

To participate, simply follow these directions:
https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?alertId=339&pg=makeACall&JServSessionIdr004=guvjpfhuh1.app23a

People For the American Way:

Emergency Petition to Filibuster the PATRIOT Act House and Senate negotiators have struck a deal on reauthorizing the USA PATRIOT Act, leaving many of the bill's worst provisions intact. Before leaving for recess, several senators were threatening to filibuster this legislation if it contained these provisions. Let's call on them to go all the way to fight for our civil liberties!

http://actions.pfaw.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=dsJSK2PFJrH&b=1287511&action=5143&template=x.ascx

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

>NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY YOU MUST SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE UNPATRIOTIC ACT??????

Did they neglect to make that against the law too?