BG Reports

By Teddie Livingston

People Against the National Defense Authorization Act marched to Bowling City Council meeting Tuesday to speak against the National Defense Authorization Act.

President Barack Obama signed NDAA in late 2011, creating several debates. The act states the military has the ability to arrest any person suspected of terrorist acts without a trial, according to Daniel Johnson, founder of PANDA.

Council rejected the plan. The best approach for this movement would be to directly speak to Congress, council members said.

During the lobby visitation portion of the meeting, Johnson and other group members spoke to the council in hopes of gaining legislative support to go against NDAA. “We are trying to nullify the law in BG,” Johnson said. “We want
council to reconsider their decision,” he said.

NDAA goes against everything the Constitution stands for, according to Johnson. “NDAA violates American citizen’s rights,” he said.

PANDA has received 500 signatures for the PANDA petition, according to Johnson. “We don’t have students just supporting us, we have serious support. We have four constitutional lawyers supporting us,” Johnson said.

Although city council disagreed with PANDA, members of the council encouraged students and anyone to come to city council for any issues.

Greg Robinette, fourth ward representative, thanked Johnson and everyone involved in the issue.

Even though Johnson was not surprised by council’s response, PANDA does not plan to give up.

“We will continue to seek support and will stand up for what is right until we see change,” Johnson said.

In other action, the council:

• Recognized John Quinn, the former mayor, for his services to the city.
• Adopted an ordinance for the municipal administrator to advertise for bids and enter contracts for repairs, improvements, orrenovations at Needle Hall in City Park.
• Adopted an ordinance to provide issuance and sale of $2.75 million in notes to repair on North Main Street and Pole Road intersection.
• Agendas for city council meetings, minutes and adopted legislation records, can be found here.

Tags: JOHNSON, NDAA, PANDAA

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 at 10:03 am and is filed under Bowling Green City Council, Spring 2012, Student Contributor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.