Chicago council asks Congress to rethink parts of Patriot Act

CHICAGO -- The Chicago City Council passed a resolution Wednesday asking Congress to reconsider parts of the USA Patriot Act that critics say violate Americans' constitutional rights.

The resolution, which passed 37-7, was a compromise; the original called for the repeal of the federal law put in place after Sept. 11, 2001, to help the government's war on terrorism.

"What we're saying today is, 'Let's be careful about overreaching,"' Alderman Helen Shiller said. "There has been some overreaching and we should express our concern with that because it is truly here, in our cities, in our communities, where we see the impact on our people."

The act gives federal investigators broad powers to fight terrorism but has raised concerns by some about invasion of privacy and abuse of civil liberties.

The law erased many restrictions that had barred the government from spying on its citizens, granting agents new powers to use wiretaps, conduct electronic and computer eavesdropping and access private financial data.

A portion of the act gives federal authorities access to library, bookstore and other business records as part of terrorism investigations. The provision has drawn a legal challenge in a federal lawsuit filed in July by the American Civil Liberties Union and Islamic groups.

"I'm not saying to you that we should take away from the federal government all of those crime prevention or crime investigating tools that they need to protect us. But we've got to watch this balance of power," Alderman Burton Natarus said during a hour-long debate. "We have to be afraid all the time of the abuse of power."

Natarus said the government should have evidence against people before "taking everybody off the sidewalk because they have a beard or because they have long hair or because they're wearing robes."

Alderman Brian Doherty voted against the resolution, calling it "nothing but an innocuous piece of rhetoric."

"I want to know what evidence of abuse have you shown, what examples of this evidence, and what particular immigrants are being abused?" he said.

Mayor Richard Daley also questioned whether there have been civil rights violations because of the act, which he called a tool for the federal government.

"To judge it, unless there is already evidence about violations, it is too premature," he said.

"Terrorists don't understand civil rights," Daley said. "So what they need is unique laws dealing with situations arising from 9-11."

"The Patriot Act was passed because of 9-11. When some building blows up, (are) you going to go see the alderman?" Daley said.

During the council debate, Alderman Bernard Stone said he sees evidence of abuses of the act in his ward when immigrants are stopped and questioned.

"They're my neighbors and I know that they're good people," he said. "I don't like a law that says that just because they dress differently or just because they come from a country in southeast Asia that they can be seized on the street."

Natarus and others acknowledged that Congress does not have to act on or even consider the City Council's resolution.

"The passage of this resolution is a sentiment in terms of saying to the federal government, 'You've got power. Keep it in balance,"' he said.