Panel condemns Patriot Act's procedures

More than 70 people gathered in the HUB Auditorium last night to hear former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper and four other panel members condemn parts of the U.S. Patriot Act as a threat to civil rights.

Stamper said the Patriot Act violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution by allowing the federal government to arrest citizens and hold them indefinitely without trial.

Stamper also objected to the act's allowance of "seek-and-peek" searches in which government agents can invade a person's home and place monitoring devices on computers or phone lines without telling him or her.

"It is one of the worst pieces of legislation in the history of this country," Stamper said. "We have the responsibility to make sure our government plays by the rules."

Don Rasmussen, the president of the Libertarians of the University of Washington (LUW), said the Patriot Act is an example of the government overstepping its bounds.

"We believe that people are ultimately best able to handle their own lives independent of the government," Rasmussen said. "With the Patriot Act, what you have is an extremely egregious example of the government assuming for itself powers beyond those granted to it by the constitution and the people of the United States."

The LUW organized the panel to stimulate discussion about the controversial piece of legislation, said LUW member Travis Thomas, who conceived the idea for the panel.

"There's not any real and serious talk among people about the Patriot Act," Thomas said. "This brings it out of the language of Congress and makes it something people can understand."

Freshman Jeff Kingshott said he came to the panel because, like Stamper, he opposes the secret searches the Act condones.

"I dislike the way they're fishing for terrorists," Kingshott said. "They're sort of infringing everybody's rights."

With the legislation up for renewal during the next session of Congress, some students said the event was particularly relevant.

"I wanted to talk more about the facts, and if they're going to start renewing it," said freshman Julia Larsen. "I don't think certain sections should be renewed, and now that I'm 18, I have the power to stop that."