The Growing De-Constitutionalized Zone

[struggle4progress]

Five Years after 9/11, our Civil Liberties are at Risk... From the Government
by James C. Harrington

.. The government’s first step was to push the USA Patriot Act through Congress within weeks of September 11. Its title is Orwellian, stripping away civil liberty in the name of patriotism. The law is not an overarching statute, but a complicated series of amendments to 15 federal laws. Taken together, the changes “legalize” secret court proceedings, spying on citizens, and jailing people in secret locations without warrants or access to attorneys and family. The act allows the government vast access to people’s medical and bank records, and information about their purchases or rentals of books, music and videos. It authorizes expansive wiretapping, surveillance and “sneak and peek” searches in which the government secretly searches people’s homes and tells them about it “at a later date.” In addition to the Patriot Act came executive orders expanding the breach of civil liberty—with one of the more egregious authorizing military tribunals for American citizens ..

After <Bush’s April 2001 dedication of the Bullock History Museum> ended, Bush went to have lunch with Gov. Rick Perry. About 40 Democracy Coalition folks walked from the museum, on the sidewalk, toward a traditional protest site on Lavaca Street, across from the west entrance to the Governor’s Mansion. But Austin police stopped them and penned them in on the sidewalk opposite the mansion’s north side. Then they brought in the horses. The four horsemen of APD either charged the demonstrators or lost control of their mounts, but the result was the same–injuries to the protesters and suppression of their speech ..

Then there are the “Crawford 5,” arrested in May 2003 by Police Chief Donnie Tidmore, who wanted them in the local football stadium rather than near the Bush ranch, seven miles from town. He blockaded them and scores of others driving through Crawford to the ranch, arrested the five for violating a sham parade ordinance (passed after Bush was elected), and threw them into the county jail for the night, to sleep on the floor ..

Then there is Chris Kelly, who was carrying an anti-Bush cardboard placard (“NO MORE BUSH-IT”) on the public sidewalk outside the entrance to an Astros playoff game in October 2004. Houston police arrested and handcuffed him, and drove him around town for a while, trying to figure out what charges to file. They finally wrote on the citation that displaying a “NO MORE BUSH-IT” sign was itself a municipal offense. That case is pending ..

http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2289

[bemildred]

1. Kick for the Texas Observer.

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