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Washington Post
NEW YORK, Feb. 4 -- New York City, site of the country's most horrific terrorist
attack, Wednesday became the latest in a long list of cities and towns that have
formally opposed the expanded investigatory powers granted to law enforcement
agencies under the USA Patriot Act.
The New York City
Council approved a
resolution condemning
the law, enacted by
Congress six weeks after
the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks, with a voice vote
in its chambers a few
blocks from the gaping
hole at Ground Zero.
"The Patriot Act is really
unpatriotic, it undermines
our civil rights and civil
liberties," said council
member Bill Perkins
(D-Manhattan), the bill's sponsor. "We never give up our rights that's what makes
us Americans."
The resolution criticized the Patriot Act for allowing infringements on privacy rights.
Among other provisions, the Patriot Act allows investigators to see citizens' library
records and eases requirements for search warrants. The council requested that
Congress deliver periodic reports accounting for the information and records on
New Yorkers the federal government has culled under the Patriot Act, but the
measure has no means to enforce that request.
The vote follows months of negotiations between resolution supporters and New
York City Council leadership. A major sticking point in the original proposal of the
resolution centered on language prohibiting the New York Police Department from
enforcing immigration laws, collecting information on activist groups and businesses,
and refraining from establishing an anti-terrorism reporting database.
After Wednesday's vote, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D) said the measure
in its final version "strikes the right balance."
"The resolution has evolved to focus on what's really needed: amendments to the
law to protect civil liberties particularly, at a time of war," he said.
New York joins 246 municipalities and counties and three states that have passed
legislation in opposition to the Patriot Act, according to the Bill of Rights Defense
Committee, an organization that helps local governments craft anti-Patriot Act
legislation.
"So much is being done in the name of New York, we are saying don't use our
name to infringe on people's rights," said Glenn C. Devitt, an organizer with the Bill
of Rights Defense Committee.
Local governments in Virginia and Maryland have approved similar measures,
including Montgomery County, Prince George's County and Alexandria.
Mark Corallo, a Justice Department spokesman, dismissed the local governments'
resolutions, saying the majority were passed in locales with left-leaning
constituencies and based on "erroneous" information about the Patriot Act.
Corallo said the act has been "one of the most important tools Congress has given
the government to fight terrorism and prevent terrorist acts."
A handful of New York council members, both Democrats and Republicans,
agreed and voted against the resolution.
Dennis Gallagher, a Republican from Queens, called the resolution a vehicle for
attacking the Bush administration. New York suffered a great loss on Sept. 11,
2001, he said. The Patriot Act "is one step in ensuring this never happens again."
But at a rally of supporters, Monica Tarazi, New York director of the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the Patriot Act and other
tactics to fight terrorism has sowed fear within New York's ethnic communities and
activists.
"This country is not about registering [people] and ethnic profiling," she said. "We
need this [resolution]. We need this as Americans."
The Patroit Act, among many other provisions, allows the government to secretly obtain what citizens are reading in libraries, conduct search and seizure without a search warrant and have meter readers spy on activities in buildings and homes.
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