Some Milford residents are working to make their town what they call a Civil Liberties Safe-Zone.
They want Milford to denounce parts of the Patriot Act that they believe infringe on their rights.
If successful, Milford would become the third community in the state, and one of almost three-hundred nationwide, to adopt this kind of resolution.
New Hampshire Public Radio correspondent Shannon Mullen has the story.
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In the basement of Milford's Unitarian Universalist Church, the Sunday service has just ended.
The parish house is filing in for coffee hour, and a small crowd is forming around a display table.
Sandy Frades is gathering signatures for a petition
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We put together this display because we were concerned about what?s happening with the USA Patriot Act.
T23 1:27 (Ianuzelli) There?s certain provisions, I think there?s 805, and 215, 805 one is abt immigation and 215 is about sneaking and peaking into things that there?s very little cause to sneak and peak into? (laughs)
That?s Frades? cohort, Nancy Ianuzelli.
Together, the pair is working to add Milford to the growing list of communities across the country that want the U.S.A. Patriot Act rewritten.
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When we first studied this there were many fewer towns and counties, it covered about 3 M people. Now there are 30 M people in this country who are kind of covered by this Civil Liberties Safe Zone idea.
Congress passed the Patriot Act within two months of the September 11th attacks.
The law enhances the powers that federal law enforcement agencies can use in their war on Terror.
But the law has come under increasing criticism.
From Libertarians to Democratic presidential candidates, critics charge the law is too broad and gives the federal government too much power over civil liberties.
The Milford Resolution and those like it across the country request that local authorities take no part in the Patriot Act?s enforcement.
At the Unitarian Universalist Church, Frades and Ianuzelli received a lot of support.
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T18 0:09 Jane Brown from Amherst. I signed the petition b/c I?m worried that we are slowly losing our civil liberties,
T2 0:23 Nolan Jones
I think it?s a grand harassment of the innocent population of the US. I don?t see how it?s making us any safer or catching any criminals. How many people have been picked up as a result of this? As far as I know, none! Therefore it?s not effective. T5 4:37 I?m Kristin Koss, I?m from Milford, I think that the very fact that we are afraid of protesting the war, of standing up for our civil liberties, means that the PA has reached Milford, NH. And I think that by standing up to speak our beliefs, makes us proud Americans not terrorists.
Last year residents in Peterborough and Marlboro adopted similar motions during Town Meetings.
But once word of the movement hit Milford?s streets, it was clear there would be some opposition.
One letter to the editor of the Milford Cabinet called Frades and Ianuzelli ?liberal loonies?.
And Milford police Chief Fred Douglas doesn?t believe the Patriot Act is that harmful.
In fact he finds the federal effort against terrorism has actually been helpful.
T24 4:52 I get info every day relative to specific things that come down from the federal level, through the state, to this agency. I never got that before, and I share that with the line officers in the street, b/c the bottom line is that they?re the ones that have to deal with it.
Chief Douglas says it?s still too early to say how he?ll react to what Frades and Ianuzelli?s resolution would ask him to do.
T24 8:48 Until the board of selectmen, until there?s a referendum, until the citizens of this community tell me otherwise, we?re going to continue down the same path we?ve been going.
And even if it does pass, the referendum may have no effect on how Chief Douglas does his job.
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The overwhelming majority of the Patriot Act does not involve local police activity at all.
That?s Will Delker ? criminal justice bureau chief at the New Hampshire Attorney General?s office.
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The PA is really primarily focused on dealing w/foreign intelligence gathering and law enforcement activity of the FBI and the Secret Service. The only real provisions that deal w/local law enforcement activity deal with collection of electronic data, e-mails and the like. There?s nothing that impacts the ability of local law enforcement to search people?s homes, that?s all governed by state law. The PA has no bearing on that type of activity.
Still Frades and Ianuzelli continue to meet with local organizations to rally their community against the Patriot Act.
They don?t oppose the entire Law.
They simply want people to understand how the law could effect them and their local community.
Frades and Ianuzelli may be fighting an uphill battle, but they are part of a larger fight.
Vermont, Hawaii, and Alaska have passed similar resolutions at the state level.
And in Concord, Representative McElroy has introduced a bill that would nullify the federal Law in New Hampshire.
That bill failed in committee, but is scheduled for a floor vote March 11th.
For NHPR news, I?m SM.
