As Americans stand up to claim and defend their birthright of liberty and democracy, the tide is beginning to turn against the detention provisions of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA.
Passed near-unanimously by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in the final hours of 2011, The 2012 NDAA declares the United States a battlefield in the war on terror and subject to a law of war newly understood to supersede the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
On this battlefield, any person may be detained without charge or trial on the mere accusation of undefined “support” for terror or commission of a “belligerent act,” and held until the end of the war on terror – that is, until the final defeat of an enemy that is not a country or even an organization, but a tactic.
No more craven concession to the emotion of terror could have been made, in the name of the American nation, by its supposed representatives. No clearer indication could have been given to the American people that their Republic, unless swiftly bolstered by a surge of passionate citizen reinvolvement, was on the verge of gently collapsing into an irreversible and, it seemed, barely-remarked-upon tyranny.
But America is responding. Across the nation, we have begun to recognize the crisis and our duties in the face of it, and to organize ourselves to take back the American republic in line with our Constitution and our traditions of liberty. People Against the NDAA, or PANDA, has recently initiated a Take Back the Town campaign, resulting in a wave of city and town council victories nationwide.
It started in Albany, N.Y., on October 7, when Albany’s “Common Council” unanimously passed Resolution 80.92.13 to become the first city in America actively to prohibit indefinite military detention under the NDAA. Albany declared itself not a battlefield, its citizens and other residents free of “disposition under the law of war,” and its law enforcement officers bound to uphold the rights of those people in the face of any opposition.
Two days later the same thing happened in Oxford, Mass., which declared that “…it is unconstitutional, and therefore unlawful for any person to:
"a. arrest or capture any person in Oxford, or citizen of Oxford, within the United States, with the intent of 'detention under the law of war,' or "b. actually subject a person in Oxford, to 'disposition under the law of war,' or "c. subject any person to targeted killing in Oxford, or citizen of Oxford, within the United States;…"
In lieu of a city council, Oxford passes legislation at “Town Meetings” where the citizens vote. A long campaign succeeded in putting the “Restoring Constitutional Governance Resolution” before the people, and when it did, Oxford residents did what most elected officials lack the courage to do, and voted 95% in favor of upholding the Constitution in their town.
Two weeks after that vote, Webster, Mass., passed legislation prohibiting any person, in whatever position of authority, from utilizing the powers of the “law of war” to declare themselves above the founding laws of the United States with regard to their fellow citizens' right to liberty and a trial.
Further momentum is building in the West. The Siskiyou Daily out of Yreka, Calif., recently reported that County Board Supervisor Marcia Armstrong responded about the NDAA: "’What they've done is they've declared a limited martial law and suspended the First Amendment and other amendments.
To the south, in Santa Cruz, Calif., efforts are underway that incorporate PANDA's Restoring Constitutional Governance Resolutions to create an anti-NDAA bill with real legislative teeth. In Eugene, Oregon, county commissioners have gone on record committing themselves and their city to act against the NDAA, with conservative Republican Fay Stewart noting, “We’re trying to encourage the state and the federal government to make some changes,” and liberal Democrat Pete Sorenson adding, “I’ve got emails from former law enforcement saying they don’t want this.”
Now, activists across the country in over 125 cities have committed to Take Back the Town and abolish the NDAA as it applies to their legal jurisdictions. PANDA itself has, in less than two years of existence, grown to become a national presence with over 30 state chapters, through broad antipartisan coalitions that unite Tea and Green parties, Oathkeepers and Occupiers.
The Take Back movement sees itself as restoring law and liberty to America. Your town is not a battlefield. It's time to take it back. Find out more here.
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