New York Bill of Rights New York Bill of Rights ...

When Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft took the Patriot Act on its promotional tour in early September, protests greeted him at every stop. In New York, 2500 people gathered in downtown Manhattan on a weekday, at lunchtime, on two days' notice. The primary organizer of the demonstration was the New York Bill of Rights Defense Campaign, a grassroots project of the New York Civil Liberties Union founded in early 2003 to address post-9/11 civil rights and civil liberties issues.

But NYBORDC project director Udi Ofer stresses that government attacks on civil liberties predate and transcend USA PATRIOT. "Protecting civil liberties encompasses much more than repealing the Patriot Act," he says. From the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, passed just seven years after the ratification of the Bill of Rights, to the Red Scares, Palmer Raids and COINTELPRO, such assaults are steeped in U.S. history.

The NYBORDC, which Ofer and friends started in a Brooklyn living room, is remarkable for its successful marriage of grassroots and lobbying. Relationships between grassroots groups and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are often uneasy, but both approaches are crucial components of social change.

In this case, the efficient, highly organized NYBORDC benefits from the CLU's resources and clout, while the CLU can tackle projects for which it otherwise simply wouldn't have the people-power. Ofer is the campaign's sole full-time staffer. Nearly 1000 volunteers carry out the bulk of the work in the NYC group alone, and smaller chapters dot the state. Decision-making is transparent and democratic: Volunteers work within autonomous committees, and chairs elected by volunteers make major decisions at monthly meetings.

While the campaign's goals include educating and mobilizing citizens through frequent teach-ins, conferences and protests, NYBORDC's current main focus is passing City Council Resolution 909, a broad resolution that entreats government officials "to affirm and uphold civil rights and civil liberties." On Oct. 20, there was a public hearing at which a dozen organizations testified, including the American Conservative Union. The ACU's Bob Barr, a former Republican House Representative from Georgia, delivered a vigorous statement of support for Res. 909, calling it "a key symbol of Americans' unwillingness to allow understandable concern over terrorism to mutate into the irrational crippling of our most cherished rights and freedoms."

Twenty-nine members of the City Council are currently signed on to the resolution. While that's enough to pass it, none of those members has the power to override a veto, and the resolution is only otherwise veto-proof with 34 votes. NYBORDC is working to gain Speaker Gifford Miller's support. He has not yet signed on, though he's put forward his own resolution (1120), which calls merely for the federal government to abandon the proposed Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, or "Patriot Act II." Lupe Todd, a spokesperson for the City Council, says that Miller "definitely supports the goals of Res. 909, but is still in discussion with various people and groups, including the New York Civil Liberties Union, trying to discern how to best address the needs of the city and the nation."

If Res. 909 passes, NYC would join 205 U.S. cities and towns and three states (Vermont, Hawaii, Alaska) that have enacted various kinds of civil liberties resolutions. Chicago, the country's third-largest city, passed one on Oct. 1.

The movement to repeal the Patriot Act and safeguard civil liberties is growing, fueled by a diversity exemplified in the NYBORDC's 90 coalition members, who include ACT UP/NY, NAACP, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and a host of other organizations that run the gamut of race, tactics and issue focus. One grassroots group, Mobilize New York, has created glossy "Patriot Act Free Zone" posters; the associated website points directly to that of the NYBORDC.

"The biggest civil liberties danger right now concerns immigrants' rights," says Ofer. "Thousands of Arab, Muslim and South Asian men have been interrogated, detained and deported based principally or primarily on their religion or national origin. In NYC, the Pakistani community in Midwood, Brooklyn has been hardest hit by 9/11. Since then, somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 Pakistani immigrants have been detained, voluntarily left or been deported." Ofer notes that Midwood was traditionally a Jewish neighborhood. "Pakistanis settled there because of the availability of kosher food, which is compatible with the guidelines of halal."

Glenn Devitt, a 33-year-old small-business owner and an NYBORDC volunteer chair, says, "Maybe some people are indifferent to the plight of immigrants. Maybe they can live with having their library records collected and scrutinized. But it's a package deal? This isn't helping to fight terrorism. It's terrorizing communities."