IN THE COUNTY LEGISLATURE OF JACKSON COUNTY, MISSOURI
Title
A RESOLUTION expressing the commitment of the Legislature to the preservation of civil rights and civil liberties.
Intro
RESOLUTION # 14551, April 14, 2003
INTRODUCED BY Scott Burnett and Henry C. Rizzo, County Legislators
Body
WHEREAS, following the attacks on America of September 11, 2001, Americans have witnessed considerable expansion of federal governmental authority and consequent restriction of civil liberty, justice, and human dignity and security in the areas of electronic surveillance, racial or ethnic profiling, monitoring of social views, expression, and associational activities, search and seizure without probable cause or reasonable suspicion, trials closed to the public, deprivation of the right to counsel and to a speedy, fair, and public trial, monitoring of counsel-client confidences, investigation without specific cause, and detention without charge, among other restrictions; and,
WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States passed PL 107-56, the USA Patriot Act, on October 26, 2001, expanding the authority of the federal government to detain and investigate citizens and non-citizens and to engage in electronic surveillance of citizens and non-citizens; and,
WHEREAS, the historical record of our nation is rife with examples of unchecked trust in the government being misplaced, such as the CONUS (Continental United States) program which, during the 1950's and 1960's, monitored civilian political activity and dissent, collected and maintained files on political activists, and used undercover operatives recruited from the Army to infiltrate these activist groups and steal confidential information and files for distribution to federal, state, and local governments, the FBI’s COINTELPRO and the CIA’s version called OPERATION CHAOS which, from 1956 to 1971, harassed and spied on a vast number of peaceful civil rights and social protest groups, STOP INDEX, a com...
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