FC: ACLU blasts New Jersey terrorcrat's stay-at-home warning

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:

"'Red alert' means New Jerseyans may not leave their homes"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-04565.html

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Red Alert: ACLU of NJ Calls Counter-Terrorism Chief's Comments 
Counter-Productive

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 21, 2003

Contact: Gabe Rottman
202-675-2312

NEWARK - The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey today severely 
criticized a high-level state official for saying that in the event of a 
"red alert" security level, "You literally are staying at home...What we're 
saying is, 'Everybody sit down.' If you are left standing, you are probably 
a terrorist."
"What that statement describes is essentially martial law," said Deborah 
Jacobs, Executive Director of the ACLU of New Jersey.
"If ever necessary," Jacobs added, "such extreme actions could only be 
justified in exceptionally limited situations where an investigation could 
pose a direct danger to the public in a restricted geographic area."
Since the official, Sid Caspersen, the Director of the New Jersey Office of 
Counter-Terrorism, made his statements, Jacobs said that the ACLU has 
received dozens of phone calls from members of the public concerned about 
the consequences of a red-alert lockdown. Some parents, for example, said 
they feared that they would be unable to find their children.
"While the Governor's office seeks to assuage the public's anxiety, 
comments like Caspersen's seem only to exacerbate things," Jacobs said.
Another point of concern that Caspersen's comments raised was the claim 
that New Jersey has recently secretly arrested and detained suspected 
terrorists. Caspersen told listeners of a radio program on which he was 
interviewed that the public isn't "going to read about them any time soon."
"In one breath, Caspersen tries to encourage public trust by stating that 
'the state's on top of it.' In the next breath, he brags about secret 
arrests," Jacobs said. "The proven way to create public trust is to conduct 
government business in the open."
Jacobs said that as part of its ongoing litigation challenging government 
secrecy, the ACLU would seek to learn more about the "secret arrests" that 
Caspersen highlighted.
The ACLU currently has two pending cases concerning government secrecy 
since September 11. The first involves the closure of courtrooms for more 
than 1,000 immigration hearings, ordered closed on September 21, 2001 by 
the Chief U.S. Immigrant Judge. The case is pending before the U.S. Supreme 
Court.
A second case involves the refusal of the government to release the names 
of individuals who were arrested on immigration violations in the weeks 
following September 11. This case is currently before an appeals court in 
Washington.

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