Liberty and Justice for All
... American public into giving up core essential freedoms is unconstitutional and contradicts the Bill of Rights (cole 199). Some politicians and supporters may argue that enacting the Patriot Act will give the government the authority to stop and arrest terrorists and their networks before they do any damage on American soil. Well, let me ask, at what cost to the American people? Giving up our privacy will not stop terrorism; terrorists will always find ways to stay one-step ahead of the law. One of the strongest arguments that support the Patriot Act is that police departments will be able to match fingerprints and DNA samples from crime scenes to suspects from the data based. Well, how much money will it cost to start and maintain an agency with that type of responsibility? One approach would be to cut the budget from various government agencies. The problem is what agencies have big enough budgets for the government to cut without affecting the priorities and responsibilities? We have police departments all across the United States cutting their resources, man hours, and usually end up laying off police officers because of the budget cuts they suffer every year. That leaves fewer police officer’s patrolling the city or town where the budget cuts were made. What about our privacy? Where can we feel secure if we do not have privacy in our own home? We will always be wondering if someone is listening to our phone conversations, and we will not be able to visit web sites without being afraid of the government using the information against us. All throughout history U. S. citizens have fought and won for the right of protection against unlawful searches. The new Patriot Act allows government agencies (FBI, U.S. Marshals, CIA and local police agencies) to break in, examine, remove or alter items without immediately presenting owners with a warrant, detailing what they are entitled to do or why they are conducting the search. The government interest in stopping terrorism should never invade the U. S. citizens’ Bill of Rights. Giving up our privacy is like losing our wedding ring down the drain; we never knew how much it meant to us until it is gone. America is a “land of the free”, but the government is taking freedom away from Americans by enacting the Patriot Act. In addition, if the Patriot Act remains in force innocent people might be classified as suspects. What if a college student working on his chemistry major decides to buy or check out a book from the local library for school which contains information on how to mix certain chemicals that the government may consider dangerous to society? Are the authorities going to arrest him and put him in jail? Without enough evidence, police officers should not have the right to come to our house to arrest us and search our property. For instance, what if a neighbor dislikes you and decides to call the local police department with a false accusation? The person falsely accused may lose his/her job, reputation, and prestige in society over false accusations or an unnecessary arrest. Anthony Romero, ACLU (American Civil Rights Union) Executive Director and a former member of Ford Human Rights and International Cooperation Program described an incident:In May, Brandon Mayfield, a 37-year-old Oregon lawyer from Connecticut, was arrested and thrown in jail when federal agents incorrectly matched his fingerprint with one found on a bag of detonators in a station near Madrid after the March train bombings. Earlier, FBI agents had sneaked into his home and taken "Spanish documents" (namely his son's Spanish homework), along with copies of the “Koran” (Mr. Mayfield is a convert to Islam). Two weeks later, most of it spent in solitary confinement, all charges were dropped and he was released with an apology from the FBI. The next day after Mayfield arrest the local paper carried the headline "Terror Strikes Home". (romero aclu.org) As a result from the arrest Mr. Mafield has lost his job, due to the lack of thrust from former coworkers, he also has received death treats .Another event happened when Jose Padilla, a U.S. Citizen, was arrested by authorities at Chicago O’Hare Airport in May 2002, Mr. Padilla was initially held in New York City as a material witness on the ongoing “counterterrorism” investigation. In June 2002, President George W. Bush labeled him as “e...