After an emotional debate, Chicago's city council approved a resolution Wednesday condemning the USA Patriot Act for casting a pall on the civil rights of minorities.
Aldermen backpedaled from an earlier resolution that demanded lawmakers repeal the entire act, and instead asked Congressional leaders to strike out portions that "violate fundamental rights and liberties."
Chicago became the largest city in the United States to criticize the Patriot Act, joining cities such as Minneapolis, Detroit, Baltimore, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
The purpose of the Patriot Act, proponents say, is to allow the government to track terrorist activities in the United States and around the world. It broadly expands law enforcement's surveillance and investigative powers.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who has presided over several terrorism-related indictments in Chicago, has defended the act, saying it tore down an artificial line between law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
At times, the council's debate was sharply drawn across political ideology.
Some aldermen representing wards populated heavily with minorities said their constituents are unfairly seen as targets by federal agents for interrogations.
"You just can't ... take everybody off the sidewalk because they have a beard, or because they have long hair, or because they're wearing robes," said Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd), who compared the United State's current quandary over civil rights to Hitler's takeover of Germany in the 1930s.
"My colleague's analogy to Nazi Germany is quite a stretch," answered Ald. BrianDoherty (41st), a known conservative on the council, who said there hasn't been much evidence of civil rights abuses caused by the Patriot Act.
"In my opinion, this resolution is nothing but an innocuous piece of rhetoric formulated to embarrass our present administration and our country," Doherty said, drawing groans from some fellow council members.
But Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) has claimed that people in his ward — particularly those originally from Southeast Asia, Pakistan or India — have been picked up off the street, interrogated and released by the government for little or no reason.
"I know damn well that they're good people, because I've lived with them for many years," Stone said. "They're my neighbors."
Mayor Richard Daley met privately with President Bush on Tuesday during his Chicago visit and they talked about terrorism issues, among other things, Daley said.
Daley continued to take a diplomatic stance on the issue Wednesday.
"No. 1, if a building blows up, are you going to see the alderman?" Daley asked during a news conference with reporters. "Terrorists don't understand civil rights. If they did, they would have never bombed the World Trade Center.
"If there's any abuses, there'll be lawsuits filed in the federal court or state court," he said, "and then we hear them. Again, to judge it, unless there's already evidence about violations, that's too premature."
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