20 | May | 2015 | The PPJ Gazette

The Patriot Act, the law used to justify mass government surveillance, is going to expire if it’s not reauthorized this week.

May 20, 2015

These 50 emergency vigils are the most effective step we can take right now to stop any senator from thinking that maybe it’s ok to renew the Patriot Act. Find a vigil near you. If you’ve never taken action on surveillance before: this is the one to take.

~Tiff Cheng

The Patriot Act, the law used to justify mass government surveillance, is going to expire if it’s not reauthorized this week.

If Congress fumbles for the next few days, the Patriot Act will not be renewed — and right now, the vote is close enough that a big push by people like you and me can tip the scales and ensure the Patriot Act expires, dealing a death blow to unconstitutional NSA programs.

We’re joining with half a dozen other organizations including Demand Progress, Restore the Fourth, CREDO, MoveOn.org, and Free Press Action Fund to host 50 “EMERGENCY vigils to Sunset the Patriot Act” across the country tomorrow night, calling on senators to vote against reauthorization.

Click here to find a Sunset the Patriot Act vigil near you (as well as find out how your senator is leaning).

Here are the details:

WHAT: Emergency “Sunset the Patriot Act” vigils against mass surveillance – happening in 50 cities across the U.S. WHEN: 7 pm local time, Thursday, May 21st (roughly an hour before sunset) WHERE: Find your local event here. If you don’t see one and want to set one up outside another of your senators’ offices, reply to this email and let us know! BRING: A cell phone, laptop, tablet, and candles with the protestsign.org already pre-loaded. Feel free to bring any other signage you want — the main message is “Sunset the Patriot Act”.

Click here to find a Sunset the Patriot Act vigil near you (as well as find out how your senator is leaning).

News reports show that the Senate is all confused so they’re going with the plan of ramming through the bills. That’s because we have filibuster threats from at least two senators — Rand Paul and Ron Wyden — a looming expiration date, and confusion about the best course of business. And, if we have voices from all over the country calling on them to end the Patriot Act, we can make them falter and split and fall all over themselves. This is the time when doing nothing actually helps us.

That’s why action right now is critical — according to our whip count, dozens of senators are still on the fence, and protests across the country the day before the vote can prevent them from throwing their support behind the Patriot Act. If we can prevent these last senators from siding with the NSA, the Patriot Act will expire.

After all these years of fighting against how the Patriot Act has torn up our freedoms without making us any safer, it all comes down to the next couple of days. This is our week to end the Patriot Act.

Click here to join a Sunset the Patriot Act vigil near you.

If you haven’t done anything yet to push back against government mass surveillance, please take action now. There are just 2 days left at our best and final chance at reforming surveillance for years to come.

Thanks for all you do,

Fight for the Future

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This commentary is also
available at www.rutherford.org.

By John W. Whitehead
May 19, 2015

“If we’re training cops as soldiers, giving them equipment like soldiers, dressing them up as soldiers, when are they going to pick up the mentality of soldiers? If you look at the police department, their creed is to protect and to serve. A soldier’s mission is to engage his enemy in close combat and kill him. Do we want police officers to have that mentality? Of course not.”— Arthur Rizer, former civilian police officer and member of the military

Talk about poor timing. Then again, perhaps it’s brilliant timing.

Only now—after the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security (DHS) and Defense have passed off billions of dollars worth of military equipment to local police forces, after police agencies have been trained in the fine art of war, after SWAT team raids have swelled in number to more than 80,000 a year, after it has become second nature for local police to look and act like soldiers, after communities have become acclimated to the presence of militarized police patrolling their streets, after Americans have been taught compliance at the end of a police gun or taser, after lower income neighborhoods have been transformed into war zones, after hundreds if not thousands of unarmed Americans have lost their lives at the hands of police who shoot first and ask questions later, after a whole generation of young Americans has learned to march in lockstep with the government’s dictates—only now does President Obama lift a hand to limit the number of military weapons being passed along to local police departments.

Not all, mind you, just some.

Talk about too little, too late.

Months after the White House defended a federal program that distributed $18 billion worth of military equipment to local police, Obama has announced that he will ban the federal government from providing local police departments with tracked armored vehicles, weaponized aircraft and vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers, camouflage uniforms and large-caliber firearms.