To raise awareness about this blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment by the United States government, Occupy The Stage's Guise of Fawkes Krewe joined Krewe of Kolossos in its second annual July 4th parade on Bayou St. John in New Orleans. The "freedom" theme was perfect for a #RestoreThe4th demonstration!
In a canoe dubbed "The Lulz Boat," we gave out information about political prisoners and copies of the 4th Amendment. Spy Versus Spy puppets employed by the NSA accompanied flags about Restore The Fourth! Special thanks to Mail To The Jail for helping with addresses of political prisoners to share!
This demonstration was in response to the information recently leaked by Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who exposed the NSA surveillance program.
Edward Snowden had been working at the National Security Agency for four years when he leaked material from one of the world's most secretive organizations – the NSA. These leaks revealed four independent programs: the bulk collection of telephone records, the Prism program, Obama's implementation of an aggressive foreign and domestic cyber-operations policy, and false claims by NSA officials to Congress.
The Washington Post reports: "The top-secret PRISM program allows the U.S. intelligence community to gain access from nine Internet companies to a wide range of digital information, including e-mails and stored data, on foreign targets operating outside the United States. The program is court-approved but does not require individual warrants. Instead, it operates under a broader authorization from federal judges who oversee the use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Some documents describing the program were first released by The Washington Post on June 6. The newly released documents below give additional details about how the program operates, including the levels of review and supervisory control at the NSA and FBI. The documents also show how the program interacts with the Internet companies."
This search and seizure of data is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. The United States government and NSA should abide by the Constitution. The revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance represent a stunning abuse of our basic rights.
To voice your concerns about NSA spying, dial 1-STOP-323-NSA (1-786-732-3672). The automated system will connect you to your legislators. Urge them to provide public transparency about NSA spying and stop warrantless wiretapping on the communications of millions of ordinary Americans.
Call now. Tell Congress to end the spying.
You can also visit Stop Watching Us to demand the U.S. Congress reveal the full extent of the NSA's spying programs.
We are calling on Congress to take immediate action to halt this surveillance and provide a full public accounting of the NSA's and the FBI's data collection programs. We call on Congress to immediately and publicly:
- Enact reform this Congress to Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the state secrets privilege, and the FISA Amendments Act to make clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity and phone records of any person residing in the U.S. is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court;
- Create a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying. This committee should create specific recommendations for legal and regulatory reform to end unconstitutional surveillance;
- Hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance.
Here is a photo-set and a few videos from our July 4th demonstration.
Preparing the Lulz Boat
In the Lulz Boat
Giving out #MailToTheJail info in The Lulz Boat
Thank you everyone who helped make this a great day!
If you like the work Occupy The Stage is doing, please considering donating here to help with materials costs to make more creative demonstration materials.
We are asking $200 for this original one-of-a-kind piece of artwork, but we will also consider offers of $100 or more.
Pleasecontact us if you have questions or are interested. We could combine this with other artwork!
Happy #RestoreThe4th!
~ Occupy The Stage