NDAA forum highlights: Councilmember Q&A/remarks

Councilmember Seth Grimes was on hand for the forum, as was Councilmember Kay Daniels-Cohen.  Before the meeting, Mr. Grimes had indicated he might not stay long so he could get home sooner.  So he was offered a chance to go first with questions or, as it turned out, remarks.

Councilmember Grimes began by assuring the panelists that the council wasn’t “afraid of looking ridiculous.”  He questioned whether it was proper for a city council to take up issues of this nature, and compared the MCCRC’s NDAA/AUMF resolution effort to the story of the drunk looking for his lost car keys under the lamppost rather than where he dropped them.  The idea was that since it was Congress that had made the mistake, Congress was where NDAA opponents should turn, whether by voting for better members of Congress, or by voicing opposition to them directly. Grimes cited his own Keystone XL protest as a more “proper” way of opposing a bad policy or legislation than a city council resolution.

Heather Hurlburt replied that there was no arena where politics and advocacy were off limits any more.  To be “purist” about how to use local governmental structures was to “tie one of our hands behind our backs.”  She added that “elected officials respect things that other elected officials choose to do.”  Shahid Buttar noted that “it’s absolutely proper for this community to raise its voice; I would say it’s almost improper not to… Local governments have a role to play on national questions. … The idea of just turning a blind eye because the decision is supposed to be made somewhere else, I think that’s a very passive way to treat your own rights.”

For my part, quite aside from the ‘drunk’ part of Councilmember Grimes’s analogy –  which I assume he didn’t think through properly –  I think the rest of his metaphor also misses the mark.   We’re not looking for a door key we dropped, whether by mistake or in a stupor.  We’re looking for help from our city council — a flashlight, as it were — to find and restore the rights someone else swatted out of our hands and into the dark.  A public city council resolution, publicly deliberated, could shine that light in a way no council member’s personal protest or note ever could.

Councilmember Daniels-Cohen’s remarks were simple and brief: she had come to listen, and commended the discussion thus far as “incredibly interesting, and profound.”

NDAA forum highlights: Heather Hurlburt (National Security Network)

National Security Network executive director Heather Hurlburt led off her remarks with a breaking news bulletin: parents were ahead at half time by one point in the Takoma Park Elementary School parents-staff basketball game.

Turning serious, Ms. Hurlburt immediately put the NDAA issue — and why opposition to it is essential –  in stark terms: “…as bad as what was passed in the NDAA is, it is a symptom of a much deeper problem which is going to keep coming back … in Congress until there is a firm bipartisan message sent that the American people don’t want any more of these laws.”

What were the drafters of NDAA Sections 1021 and 1022 trying to achieve?  Hurlburt identified a number of motives:

• to declare (in Senator Lindsay Graham’s words)  that “the homeland is the battlefield” — with the implication that burgeoning military, intelligence, and law enforcement powers outside the U.S. could and should be extended to within it.  (“Lindsay Graham and Joe Lieberman were shockingly explicit about that on the floor of the Senate.”)
• to no longer restrict the Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF) to Al Qaeda operational areas – a goal not achieved with this NDAA, but sure to be attempted again.
• to militarize the justice system for apprehended terror suspects
• to chip away at the idea that everyone has the same constitutional rights

So why work at the local level rather than the federal one to oppose these things?  Far from being a non sequitur, Hurlburt said that local activism on this issue now was more important than talking to federal legislators:

“…we had a lot of members of Congress who were scared of what the media could do to them, they were scared of taking any vote that could be pictured as being weak on terrorism. Ten years after 9/11 this is a moment to finally communicate to members of Congress that there are other things that the American public cares about than being perceived as weak on terrorism. And we’ve finally reached the moment where we can have that conversation. [...]

This is really a chance at the local level to find every creative way we have to say “hey, federal legislators, if you all will actually step up and do what we know you know is right in the first place, you will not be punished for it.” And that’s why I’m actually really happy to be doing work at the local level because I literally think this is more important than talking to members of Congress right now, because they all know — they’ve all read all the position papers, they’ve read all the outcry, what they don’t know is whether they’re safe to do what is right. “

Lively forum airs NDAA issues

Audience gathers before forum. About 35 people attended Thursday evening’s event. (Click for photo slideshow)

Impassioned, knowledgeable speakers and a lively, engaged audience — including two Takoma Park city council members, Seth Grimes and Kay Daniels-Cohen — made for a very successful NDAA forum last night at the Takoma Park Community Center.

Thomas Nephew welcomed about 35 forum-goers, speaking of the NDAA as a “civil liberties emergency.”  He said that both the forum itself and the NDAA/AUMF resolution that MCCRC is advocating are products of coalition and collaboration: “we built it from two model ordinances developed by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the ACLU, and worked with those organizations and the Defending Dissent Foundation to perfect it.  The result is a resolution that has been vetted by some of the best legal minds and civil liberties advocates in the country, and that is explicitly endorsed by the Maryland ACLU, the BORDC, Defending Dissent, and SAALT.”

Eric Bond, editor of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Voice, introduced the two speakers of the evening: Heather Hurlburt, executive director of the National Security Network, and Shahid Buttar, executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

The movement to oppose the NDAA is proving to be a remarkable cross-section of American politics and diversity, and last night’s audience was no exception.  Two members of the Japanese-American Citizens League reminded the audience that Japanese-Americans were once indefinitely detained without due process; Ron Paul supporters emphasized that they were Constitutional conservatives; Muslim-Americans asked probing questions and noted that they were bearing the brunt of the civil liberties losses of the past decade; Occupy supporters wondered about the connection between NDAA and the Occupy movement — and pointed to the Occupy movement as an example of people taking politics into their own hands.

The forum was a great success in the collaboration that went into publicizing it, in the size and diversity of the audience, and in the quality of the discussion by the speakers, moderator, and the audience; more in future posts.  At least one councilmember, Kay Daniels-Cohen, was enthusiastic about the audience’s engagement with the issue and the possibilities for community action.  Video of the event will be posted soon.

UPDATE:

Forum posts:

• NDAA forum highlights: Heather Hurlburt (National Security Network)
• NDAA forum highlights: Shahid Buttar (BORDC)
• NDAA forum highlights: Moderator Eric Bond Q&A
• NDAA forum highlights: Councilmember Q&A/remarks
• NDAA forum highlights: Audience Q&A
• NDAA forum welcome… “A civil liberties emergency”

Forum videos:

• Forum video playlist (select any below or play in succession)
• (video) (03:23) Thomas Nephew introduction
• (video) (02:59) Eric Bond, moderator
• (video) (16:22) Remarks by Heather Hurlburt
• (video) (07:59) Remarks by Shahid Buttar
• (video) (15:30) Q&A by Eric Bond (video)
• (video) (06:55) Q&A/remarks by Councilmembers Grimes, Daniels-Cohen
• (video) (17:07) Q&A by audience: I
• (video) (15:55) Q&A by audience: II
• (video) (11:36) Q&A by audience: III

NDAA forum welcome by Thomas Nephew: “A civil liberties emergency”

Thomas Nephew welcomes audience to forum. Click image for slideshow of the forum.

Welcome to the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition forum on the military detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2012.

Our motto is “protecting civil liberties everywhere by protecting them at home.”

And we try to live up to that.  We are a group of fairly active activists and a network of like-minded coalition allies who joined together in late 2010 to advocate for local civil rights initiatives ranging from opposing Metro bag searches and advocating for a civil rights restoration act for the county to supporting youth curfew opponents, yet also opposing the worse alternative of a broadly drawn county loitering bill.

This forum — and the resolution we advocate for the city of Takoma Park and beyond — reflects our conviction that the NDAA’s indefinite detention provisions represent a civil liberties emergency for our country and our community.  A law purporting to subject any civilian – American citizen or not – detained far from any battlefield to the threat of indefinite military detention is bad enough. One that threatens to do so based on unproven suspicion, without trial, of “belligerence” or of “support” of “associated groups” of terrorist organizations is intolerably broad, dangerous, and chilling.  We the people concede such broad powers to our government at our peril; the mistake has been made; it must be undone.

We’re proud and honored that this forum is co-sponsored by a stellar coalition of civil liberties and social justice organizations including the Maryland ACLU, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Defending Dissent Foundation, Peace Action Montgomery, ACLU of Montgomery County, and South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)

The resolution we advocate is also a product of collaboration; we built it from two model ordinances developed by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the ACLU, and worked with those organizations and the Defending Dissent Foundation to perfect it.  The result is a resolution that has been vetted by some of the best legal minds and civil liberties advocates in the country, and that is explicitly endorsed by the Maryland ACLU, the BORDC, Defending Dissent, and SAALT.

We’re also very pleased to have two bona fide experts on the subject here tonight to help all of us understand exactly what the NDAA does, what’s at stake, and what we can do about it.

And we’re fortunate to have one of Takoma Park’s leading citizens, Eric Bond of the Takoma Voice, to introduce them and moderate the forum tonight.

Activists advocate NDAA resolution, present petition signatures

Pass the NDAA resolution!
Sign the petition!

MCCRC activists returned to Takoma Park City Council this evening to argue for the NDAA resolution, update Council on the ACLU endorsement, and present a list of 104 Takoma Park residents supporting the resolution.

Jim Kuhn led off with a forceful case for the NDAA resolution:

The detention provisions under NDAA authorize this and any future president to order the military to pick up and indefinitely imprison civilians captured anywhere in the world, far from any battlefield, not because they were convicted of a crime based on proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but in fact without criminal charges or courtroom trials, based on suspicion alone. Even where there is no armed conflict and no threat to Americans. For the first time in American history, indefinite military detention without charge or trial is lawful.

Suspicion of having created a terror-related crime — gosh, only the worst of the worst could end up like that, right? Wrong. There is very credible evidence that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have long long engaged in racial, religious, and ethnic profiling; without a doubt they have also treated peace, environmental, and anti-tax activists as terrorists, for instance under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and the material support provisions of the PATRIOT Act. The NDAA, on top of such already way-overly-broad federal laws — not to mention secret interpretations of those laws — give this and all future federal governments basically unchecked power to silence its critics, to deny civilians the right to trial, and to make irrelevant the presumption of innocence.

Jim reminded council members of the statement of a prior city council – “that there is no inherent conflict between national security and the preservation of liberty and that government can protect public safety without impairing civil rights and liberties” — adding that to him the most important provision of the resolution was this one:

We expect all federal and state law enforcement officials acting within the City to work in accordance with local law, and in cooperation with the Takoma Park Police Department, by allowing any detainees among Takoma Park’s residents or visitors access to a trial, counsel and due process, as provided by Article III of the Constitution of the United States;

NDAA forum: Heather Hurlburt, Shahid Buttar
Thursday, April 26, 7:30pm,
Azalea Room, Takoma Park Community Center,
7500 Maple Avenue, Takoma Park

For my part, I invited Council members once again to the NDAA forum this Thursday, 7:30pm in the Takoma Park Community Center’s Azalea Room.  I also notified them of last week’s Maryland ACLU endorsement of our resolution, emphasizing the nationwide movement to reverse the NDAA’s Sections 1021 and 1022:

I’m very grateful for the Maryland ACLU’s advice, and am of course very encouraged by their support. That support reflects county, State, and national ACLU’s strong support for local resolutions about this issue, as part of their national strategy — shared with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and in fact a range of other organizations — to pressure Congress to repeal this law.  In addition to the Maryland ACLU, the proposed NDAA resolution is endorsed by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC), and the Defending Dissent Foundation.

To illustrate community support for the resolution, I added:

I also wanted to share with you a list of 104 Takoma Park residents who have added their names to our petition for this resolution. Some added their names online, but most did so the good old-fashioned way, on clipboards at the Farmer’s Market or the Takoma Metro. We anticipate collecting more in the days ahead.

I hope you can join us on Wednesday morning 8-9AM and Wednesday after work, 5-7PM, to petition for the resolution and distribute NDAA forum flyers at the Takoma Metro station.

Maryland ACLU endorses proposed Takoma Park NDAA resolution

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland is adding its formidable voice to a chorus of support for the MCCRC’s proposed Takoma Park NDAA/AUMF resolution.

ACLU-MD legislative director Melissa Goemann notes:

The ACLU of Maryland is proud to work with the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition to pass this resolution in Takoma Park. We believe that NDAA is a historic threat because it codifies indefinite military detention without charge or trial into law for the first time in American history. It could permit the president – and all future presidents – to order the military to imprison indefinitely civilians captured far from any battlefield without charge or trial.

This kind of sweeping detention power is completely at odds with our American values, violates the Constitution, and corrodes our Nation’s commitment to the rule of law, which generations have fought to preserve.

Mike Mage of the Montgomery County ACLU adds, “Congratulations to the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition for having the resolve to coordinate this extremely important resolution in defense of our most fundamental rights.“

In addition to language taken from the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) model NDAA resolution, the MCCRC Takoma Park proposal incorporates provisions drawn from a similar one by the ACLU, calling for the expiration of the 2001 Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF) on the end of combat in Afghanistan.  The AUMF has been advanced — however wrongly — as legal justification for civil liberties infringements including detention without trial, perhaps most notoriously in the case of Jose Padilla.  So it’s important for this authorization to expire.

Other organizations endorsing the proposed Takoma Park NDAA/AUMF resolution include the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Defending Dissent Foundation, and South Asian Americans Leading Together.  In addition, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the ACLU of Montgomery County are joining in co-sponsoring the upcoming April 26th forum on the NDAA, featuring Heather Hurlburt of the National Security Network and Shahid Buttar of BORDC and moderated by Takoma/Silver Spring Voice editor Eric Bond.

MCCRC Asks Congress to End Racial Profiling

Racial profiling occurs whenever law enforcement agents use race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin as a factor in deciding whom they should investigate, arrest or detain, except where these characteristics are part of a specific suspect description. Singling people out on the basis of their race, ethnicity, religion, national origin or perceived citizenship or immigration status is in direct breach of the founding principles of this country. Regardless of whether it takes place under the guise of the war on drugs, immigration enforcement, or counterterrorism efforts, racial profiling is always wrong.

But it happens.  Every day.

The Constitution Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing today on racial profiling in America.  An overflow crowd filled the hearing room.  Senator Durbin, who chaired the meeting noted that Congress was working on a bill to end racial profiling by law enforcement in 2001, but efforts were derailed by the 9/11 terror attacks, which led to officially sanctioned, rampant profiling across the country.

The first witness at the hearing was Maryland’s Senator Ben Cardin, who has introduced the End Racial Profiling Act (S. 1670).  We applaud Senator Cardin’s leadership.

Racial Profiling in Montgomery County

Montgomery County, Maryland is a vibrant and diverse community.  A suburb of Washington DC, our county is generally regarded as tolerant and inclusive, but there are still incidents of profiling by our police force.  These incidents create real fear in our community and sow distrust.  Just one example of problematic police conduct occurred at the Montgomery County Fair in 2010, when five Latino boys and one African-American boy were stopped, questioned, harassed, physically searched and photographed without their permission by five members of the Montgomery County Police Gang Unit.  The boys were given trespass notices, prohibited from returning to the Fairgrounds for one year for being “with known gang members and wearing gang paraphernalia.”  There was no evidence any of the boys were involved with gangs, and none were sporting “gang paraphernalia,” but they had little recourse but to file a complaint with police, which was handled administratively.  The outcome of that administrative action is unknown due to the Maryland Public Information Act, which precludes disclosure of personnel matters.

The Montgomery County Police have recently begun promoting “Operation Tripwire” as part of the National Suspicious Activity Reporting (SARS) Initiative.  The police have made available on the county website a booklet called Operation Tripwire: Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities for use by the community.  The wide range of commonplace activities  identified as ‘suspicious’ opens the door to racial, religious, ethnic and national origin profiling.  Examples of “potential indicators of terrorist activities” identified for the public by the Montgomery County Maryland police include: “purchases of expensive photography equipment with panoramic shooting capability,” “payment by cash rather than a commercial credit card” at a hardware store, beauty supply store or hotel, a person “attempting to enter (a nightclub)… alone,” or a “vehicle which has undergone recent body work” in a parking garage, or “taking notes or calling on mobile phones” while on public transportation!  Although the booklet contains a disclaimer that “just because someone’s speech, actions, beliefs, appearance, or way of life is different, it does not mean that he or she is suspicious” the booklet certainly does promote suspicion of alternative religious views or practices: “making extreme religious statements” and “use of an apartment as a house of worship” are listed as potential indicators of terrorist activities.  We are greatly concerned that the vague, even silly, catalogue of indicators will encourage participants in the program to “fill in the blanks” and rely on stereotypes and profiling to distinguish between suspicious and innocent buyers of cameras or drivers of cars with evidence of bodywork. 

In our testimony, MCCRC urged the Committee to move swiftly and take concrete actions to prohibit racial profiling at the federal, state and local level:

• Congress should pass the “End Racial Profiling Act (S.1670)” and institute a federal ban on profiling based on race, religion, ethnicity and national origin at the federal, state and local levels.
• The Subcommittee should urge the Department of Justice to amend its 2003 Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies to apply to profiling based on religion and national origin, remove national and border security loopholes, cover law enforcement surveillance activities, apply to state and local law enforcement agencies acting in partnership with federal agencies or receiving federal funds, and make the guidance enforceable.
• Congress should hold hearings on the National SARS Initiative to evaluate the effectiveness of the program, and to address concerns about profiling, privacy and other civil liberties and human rights concerns.

SAALT policy director Priya Murthy endorses NDAA resolution at Takoma Park city council meeting

Priya Murthy, policy director, South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)

South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) is one of the pre-eminent civil rights groups in the country, working on behalf of the 2.7 million Americans (2008 Census data) with ancestry from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives  – and on behalf of the rights all Americans share in.

Among SAALT’s core strategies are conducting public policy analysis and advocacy; building partnerships with South Asian organizations and allies such as our Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition; and mobilizing communities to take action.  Tonight, SAALT policy director Priya Murthy did all those things as she spoke to the Takoma Park City Council about the importance of the NDAA resolution our coalition advocates.

Statement in Support of Takoma Park City Council Resolution
Regarding Indefinite Detention and the National Defense Authorization Act
April 16, 2012

My name is Priya Murthy, and I am the Policy Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT). SAALT is a national non-partisan non-profit organization whose mission is to elevate the voices and perspectives of South Asian individuals and organizations to build a more just and inclusive society in the United States. We are proud to share that our organization is based in Takoma Park, located on Carroll Avenue in Old Town Takoma. I share this statement today, on behalf of SAALT, in support of the local resolution against the indefinite detention provisions within the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA), which was enacted by President Obama late last year, and urge the resolution’s passage within this City Council.

Takoma/Silver Spring Voice editor Eric Bond to moderate April 26th NDAA forum

Eric Bond, editor of the Takoma/Silver Spring Voice

The independent newspaper Takoma/Silver Spring Voice is one of the hubs of community life in Takoma Park; its editor Eric Bond is a respected community reporter who frequently chairs local political and educational events.

So when we thought about who might be a great moderator for the April 26th forum on NDAA indefinite detentions and what the city of Takoma Park can do about them, I thought of Eric.  And when I asked, he said, “I’d be delighted.”  Eric adds:

It  is an unfortunate sign of our times that many citizens remain unaware or apathetic concerning the issue of indefinite detentions of persons deemed enemies of the state. One might expect more discussion of this in an election year. If not on a national level, here in Takoma Park, we have a chance to review the limits of presidential power and the degree to which security should or should not influence American ideals as laid out in our founding documents. I look forward to a substantial examination of the state we’re in and the implications going forward.

The Voice serves its community and lives by the feedback it gets; it would not have lasted a single year, much less 25, without strong community support.  Continue that tradition by RSVPing to a fundraiser for the Voice at Capital City Cheesecake on April 21st at 7:30pm.

Co-sponsors join April 26th Takoma Park NDAA forum effort

We’re grateful to many great local and national organizations co-sponsoring the April 26th Takoma Park NDAA forum.  Their support reflects the importance so many different communities place in reversing the notorious indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act.   Again, the forum details:

Public forum on NDAA military detentions
Thursday, April 26, 2012, 7:30 p.m. (click to join, share the Facebook event)
Azalea Room, Takoma Park Community Center, 7500 Maple Avenue (map)
Heather Hurlburt, executive director, National Security Network
Shahid Buttar, executive director, Bill of Rights Defense Committee

Forum co-sponsors now include…

• South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)
• Defending Dissent Foundation
• Bill of Rights Defense Committee
• Peace Action Montgomery
• Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
• Montgomery County Maryland ACLU

To co-sponsor the event, just let us know you’ll publicize the April 26 forum to your members or supporters, and give us permission to list your organization as a co-sponsor.  Any brief statement you supply about why your organization opposes the NDAA indefinite detention provisions and/or why it supports the Takoma Park NDAA resolution will also be quoted gladly.