[thechat] protests?

[Judah McAuley]

Erik Mattheis wrote:
> 
> On Monday, March 24, 2003, at 05:26 AM, Joe Crawford wrote:
> 
>> Speaking of which, the State of Oregon apparently has a bill which  would
>> deem peaceful protests "terrorism" -- nice
>> http://communique.portland.or.us/03/03/ 
>> oregon_senate_bill_labels_protest_terrorism.html
> 
> -- 
> 
> I'd seen a link to that earlier on rense,com ... it's terrifying ...  
> but really don't see what I can do about it, not being a resident of  
> Oregon and not willing to move there to defeat it ... the guys Oregon  
> elected suck if this passes.
> 
> -/erik/

Don't worry about this one too much.  As it's currently written, the 
bill is blatantly unconstitutional.  Even its author acknowledges that. 
  For instance, it is worded so broadly, it would outlaw unions.  The 
Oregon Senate is also split evenly 15 to 15 Democrats and Republicans 
and this bill is one of the top priorities for the Democrats to kill 
off.  There is also no chance it would get past the Democrat govenor.

What the bill is really trying to do is two things:

1) Put together a racketeering-type law aimed at eco-terrorists (people 
who damage property in the name of defending the environment)

2) Overturn a long standing law that prohibits the police from working 
the with federal government to collect information on citizens that 
haven't been accused of breaking a law.  That same law also prohibits 
the police from arresting someone whose only crime is their immigration 
status.  This has really pissed off John Aschcroft recently, to say the 
least.  He wants every police agency in the country at his beck and call 
to carry out surrveilance on "undesireables".  Oregon refuses to go along.

There will be serious bills introduced around these areas and its going 
to be a struggle to get them defeated.  Fortunately, the current bill is 
laughable and should be defeated fairly easily.  I hope.

Judah (who has already contacted his representatives about the matter)