SANTA CRUZ > Citizens propose to amend NDAA
On Tuesday, March 13, a group of demonstrators are planning on proposing the adoption of a Resolution to Restore Due Process and the Right to Trial at the Santa Cruz City Council’s regular meeting in City Hall on Center Street.
This is in response to the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, which was signed by President Barack Obama on Dec. 31. The act authorizes indefinite military detention without trial of anyone charged with a terror-related offense, including U.S. citizens.
The local resolution calls for the City of Santa Cruz to officially decline requests by any Federal Agencies acting under detention powers granted by the NDAA that infringes on citizens’ constitutional rights. Moreover, it asks that the Mayor of Santa Cruz send copies of the Resolution to U.S. Congressmen and Senators, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the U.S. Attorney General, and the President of the United States.
On his website, Aldo Vidali, who is involved with the Resolution to the Santa Cruz City Council, states that the NDAA denies citizens’ Fifth Amendment guarantee to due process, as well as their Sixth Amendment Rights to challenge evidence and confront their accusers. Furthermore, Vidali accuses the NDAA of denying citizens their First and Fourth Amendment Rights since the Patriot Act expands the definition of terror-related acts to include speech and association by defendants who may not have even intended to commit violence.
The Resolution Organizing Committee is hoping for unanimous consent to their Resolution by the City Council due to Santa Cruz’s progressive history. They have sent a letter out to members of the community, which they are asking people to send to the city council. The letter cites the progressive stance that Santa Cruz has taken on past issues such as the 2002 proclamation that denounced the Patriot Act, as well as the fact that, in 2003, Santa Cruz became to first city to publicly denounce the Iraq War.
The letter states that the NDAA is “brazenly and dangerously unconstitutional, a treasonous assault on our Republic and on Democracy, and a peril to each of us and our children.”
Stay tuned for a recap of Tuesday’s city council meeting.
