Four years after Congress passed and President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, Mayor Bob Coble and four other members of the Columbia City Council, Tameika Isaac Devine, E.W. Cromartie II, Sam Davis, and Anne M.Sinclair, signed a statement at City Hall at 1:30 on Oct. 26, 2005, to defend the Bill of Rights in the City of Columbia.

The statement is supported by 29 organizations including the Carolina Peace Resource Center, the American Civil Liberties Union of SC, the NAACP of SC, Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Inc. of SC, and the Council for American Islamic Relations. A complete list of supporting local and national organizations can be seen on www.carolinapeace.org.

Through this action, Columbia joins seven state legislatures and 389 local and county governments, including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Raleigh, Savannah, and Jackson that have publicly gone on record supporting the protection of the civil liberties of their over 62 million residents. Columbia is the first in South Carolina to join this group.

The statement addresses concerns that the USA Patriot Act and several Executive Orders threaten key rights guaranteed to US.citizens and non–citizens by the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution and the South Carolina Constitution, such as freedom of speech, assembly, and privacy; the right to counsel and due process in judicial proceedings; and protection from unreasonable searches and seizures.

In the statement the council members request that 1) local police continue to uphold civil liberties of local residents; 2) Federal and state law enforcement agencies working in the city refrain from racial profiling or detention without charges; and 3) a mechanism be set up to report regularly on the effects of the USA Patriot Act and related measures on the City of Columbia and the disclosure of names of detainees in Columbia or elsewhere.

According to Nancy Talanian, director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee “By minimizing the cost of devoting so much time and resources to terrorism, the administration has weakened its ability to respond to other disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina.”

Speakers included Lonnie Randolph of NAACP South Carolina and Kevin Gray of ACLU South Carolina.

For more information about the issue and local efforts, go to www.carolinapeace.org and www.bordc. org or contact Natalie Kaufman at 799-1205.

The USA Patriot Act can be seen on www.defendingamerica.org/directory/USA-Patriot-Act.htm.