Santa Barbara students reject bogus "security" policies,
organize to defend civil liberties

SANTA BARBARA, CA--The Santa Barbara chapter of the Revolutionary Anti- Imperialist League led a number of organizations in denouncing the University of California police department's fear-mongering "security" policies. The police suggested campus organizations prevent students from bringing backpacks to extra-curricular events. They also recommended that organizations search all people attending their events. These requests followed the Bush administration's declaration of "orange alert status" during the Islamic Hajj.

RAIL rejected the proposed "security" policies as a psy-war tactic to erode resistance to U.$. military action against Iraq and the destruction of civil rights at home. The Santa Barbara RAIL chapter drafted a statement refusing to comply with security ordinances as ridiculous as those proposed by the UCPD now or in the future. The statement of non-compliance was signed by 15 other campus organizations (see below). SB RAIL recommends that this model be repeated in other communities in order to create a strong anti-imperialist opposition to complying with bogus "security" measures.

The same day the statement of non-compliance was published in the UCSB student newspaper, RAIL hosted an educational event on civil liberties. Speakers from MIM, Santa Barbara RAIL, and radical campus groups such as A.S.I.A.N.! and the Muslim Student Association discussed the Patriot Act, the implications of the proposed Patriot Act II (see article on page 1), the INS special registration program and the history of Japanese internment.

While the Department of Homeland Security website claims the " DHS is ... dedicated to protecting the rights of American citizens," its actions thus far have done nothing of the sort. The Patriot Act II is set to cut civil rights ranging from freedom of speech to the right against unreasonable search and seizure. According to Patriot Act II, even doing lawful work with a group the U.$. executive labels "terrorist" could result in loss of citizenship. The INS Registration program targets males of Muslim and Middle Eastern descent, causing unjustified deportation and detainment.

Signatories to the statement of non-compliance pledged that they would not be frightened into giving up their civil rights or their ability to organize against the state without its approval.

Statement against bogus UC Santa Barbara's "security" policies

Campus Police recently released a statement, distributed to all campus organizations by the Office of Student Life, requesting organizations ban backpacks from events and post visible security in response the recent national "orange alert."

These 'security' suggestions are ridiculous and inconsistent: students are not asked to leave their backpacks outside of classrooms, yet if a terrorist threat were real in Santa Barbara, the classroom would be just as vulnerable as any public event. More so, in fact, given how many people are packed into some lecture courses. The truth is the suggestions are not about security, they are local initiatives by authorities to implement the Bush administration's national objective of capitalizing on the fear of the American public in order build support for and weaken resistance to the military annihilation of Iraq and the extension of the domestic police state.

The Bush administration's issuance of a heightened security alert on February 7th is an attempt to further incite fear in the American public during the Islamic Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. It is one more instance of the US government representing threats in racial and ethnic terms, whether it's the war on crime or the war on terror. This latest incitement of fear linked to the Islamic Hajj is part of a policy of racial profiling, which scapegoats and targets people of color as barbarians at the gates of civilization. If the government was consistent it would also have issued heightened security alerts on Christmas and Easter in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

While we recognize that we live in a time of insecurity, we understand the cause of this insecurity to be rooted in the policies and practices of the United States, its allies, and proxies around the world. Since the end of World War II, the US and its allies have overthrown democratically elected governments, supported and trained terrorists, assassinated political leaders of whom they disapproved, and saturated the world with weapons. Insecurity today is the legacy of this history.

The pattern continues in the present. The incitement of fear and
increased 'security' measures will make no one safer as long as the Bush administration provides overt and covert military support to repressive regimes in places like Israel, Saudi Arabia, Columbia, and the Philippines. A superpower dropping thousands of cruise missiles on a smaller, less industrialized nation already devastated by 12 years of war and sanctions will not stabilize the Middle East. Rather, these policies will ensure a future of continued insecurity and unending violence.

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals of the UCSB community, declare that we will not comply with the UCPD's security suggestions for the heightened terrorist threat of early February 2003, nor will we be intimidated into complying with any such ordinances in the future. ... If the University administration is truly concerned about peace and security, we demand it stop supporting weapons research on campus, cut its ties with the "defense" industry, speak out against UC oversight of the nuclear weapons factories at Los Alamos and Livermore National Laboratories, and divest from companies doing business with Israel.

SIGNED: Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (SB), Nikkei Student Union, Green Party-UCSB ASIAN!, Voices 4 Global Justice, HOLA, Muslim Student Association, Queer Student Union, II9C, El Congreso, Student Action Forum on the Middle East, Students Stopping Rape, Show Space at Biko House, Women's Commission, Take Back the Night