Sam Adams
Mayor, Commissioner
of Finance and Administration
1221 SW 4th Avenue,
Room 340
Portland, Oregon,
97204
(503) 823-4120
Dear Mayor Adams,
I am writing to you
because I want you to vote NO on Portland rejoining the Joint Terrorism Task
Force (JTTF). I do not want to see any expansion of any FBI operations in
the City of Portland that involve potential violations of our civil
liberties. I oppose the JTTF, because the FBI uses tactics that involve
racial and religious profiling, targeting of peaceful activists and domestic
spying, even when there is no evidence of wrongdoing.
The Electronic
Frontier Foundation discovered over 40,000 violations by the FBI of U.S.
citizens' constitutional rights since 9/11/01. In September 2010, the Office of
the Inspector General of the Department of Justice found the FBI to have
consistently violated civil liberties by actively investigating peace groups,
animal rights activists, Palestinian rights activists, environmental groups and
anti-war protesters, without any evidence of crimes.
We are deeply
concerned about the potential for abuse of power and harm to our community from
the JTTF, the FBI, and any groups with a similar mandate. We want
Portland to have a democratic and inclusive legacy, which demands an engaged
populace and representatives that are thinking critically about what is at
stake and what will best serve the people of our community.
We will not benefit
from a relationship with the JTTF. They want to deputize our police
officers and make them accountable not to local laws and local agencies but to
the FBI, a federal agency with its own agenda. Not only do we lose
oversight, but we also lose control of the agents whose wages our local tax
dollars are still paying for.
I want City Council
to vote NO on any agreement that reduces oversight and accountability of any
government agency or law enforcement officer. I want you to represent the
best interests of the people of this community.
Please VOTE NO on
the JTTF!
I know you will do
the right thing, because I know that you value your position as a
representative of the people of Portland. If you do not value this
privilege and responsibility and you vote yes, I pledge that I will campaign
against you when you come up for re-election.
Sincerely,