For anyone who’s been living
For anyone who’s been living in a cave or a real city for the last few months, the Ann Arbor city council is considering a resolution under which the local police would not enforce parts of the U.S. Patriot Act (which parts, it’s been hard to figure out from the News’ coverage.) A forum to discuss this resolution, at which the Ann Arbor police chief and representatives from the Justice Department and the ACLU spoke, was attended by 130 Ann Arborites, presumably most in favor.
Because Ann Arborites are card-carrying ACLU members, civil liberties absolutists. Except when they’re not. Anti-panhandling ordinances are also targets of the ACLU, which holds that most panhandling is a form of protected speech. But we don’t recall any opposition to the recent step taken to tighten A2’s panhandling rules, other than the three city council votes against it (one of which was in fact that of the anti-Patriot-Act resolution’s sponsor.)
Police chief Dan Oates has said that the anti-Patriot-Act resolution would have no effect on the Ann Arbor police, since the Patriot Act doesn’t require them to do anything in the first place. Could it be that Ann Arborites embrace civil liberties when doing so involves largely symbolic actions, but not when it involves having to deal with icky street people on the way to Gratzi? Nah.