The Tonasket Resolution
Tonasket? Yes, Tonasket in Okanogan County Washington --the latest small town to pass a resolution against the Patriot Act.
Tonasket has 1,000 residents. One of them, Mark Alan, drafted the two page resolution opposing the Patriot Act. The Police Chief edited it. Two nearby towns are considering adopting it, as is the county.
Its preamble reinforces the notion that America was created "in the shadow of bloody conflicts" with intentionally strict limits on government. It goes on to suggest that the Patriot Act and similar incursions on individual civil rights are unconstitutional.
While supportive of fighting terrorism, the Resolution points out, correctly in our view, that the Goverment was equipped with laws to do so before the Patriot Act.
And it boldly proclaims that any law that "dilutes, weakens or denies" a person's constitutional rights is "unenforceable in our jurisdiction."
True, federal laws trump local ordinances and the Tonasket Resolution may not be enforceable. That's not the point. The point is the message.
...similar resolutions in other U.S. cities contain "unenforceable-in-our-jurisdiction" language to warn the feds that their police are there to protect citizens, not serve as FBI gofers.
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee keeps track of the number of jurisdictions opposing the Patriot Act. The current numbers: "three states and 141 counties and cities representing 16 million Americans."
Here is the text of the Tonasket Resolution:
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