What are your thoughts on the USA PATRIOT Act? a law where the government can invade your privacy if needed!?

Question

The patriot act allows the government and law officials to track communications between persons in order to gather information on suspicious possibly dangerous activities.Muslims and Middle Easterns come to be the target! I dont believe this is right? what are your opinions over this. By the way Im asking because i have a 6 page essay exam on this tomorrow! opinions, opinions, opinions!!! post as many as possible please!

Answer 1

I wrote a paper on this for my English class last year. So this would be my opinion haha:

After the September 11th attacks, the United States realized how substandard its security measures were. The following month, the USA Patriot Act was passed and signed into law. This act has raised security measures in order to prevent future terrorist attacks. However, this act also gives the FBI and other government organizations the power to do almost anything they want if they suspect terrorist activity. Some of these actions go against the constitutional rights of citizens. Although the Patriot Act is supposed to be for the better, it has affected our country in a bad way.

One reason that the Patriot Act is a negative effect on the US is because of the lack of privacy. For example, aclu.org states, “There are significant flaws in the Patriot Act, flaws that threaten your fundamental freedoms by giving the government the power to access to your medical records, tax records, information about the books you buy or borrow without probable cause, and the power to break into your home and conduct secret searches without telling you for weeks, months, or indefinitely.” In other words, government agencies can retrieve any piece of information about a person that they want to. They can also search your home and are not obligated to inform you. In my opinion, this violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects people against these types of searches, and also protects their private information unless the government has probable cause for using it. The government may supposedly be thwarting terrorist attacks, but just seems to be finding another way to control the American people. To conclude, although this provision makes the Patriot Act anti-American by itself, the law is harmful to the nation for many other reasons.

The Patriot Act also does a disservice to the US because it has fueled racism and discrimination. To illustrate this, amperspective.com says, “New regulations have also affected donations to the American Muslim charity organizations due to the lack of assurance that donors will be protected if any charity organization later deemed by the government to be a terrorist organization.” It also states, “…American Muslims are scared to do anything that might bring scrutiny from the Federal Bureau of Investigation — and that includes donating to Islamic charities.” In other words, Muslim or Arab charities are automatically suspected of having ties to terrorists. Muslims are afraid that if one of these organizations does have terrorist ties, they will be suspected of terrorism for donating to the charity. This discourages people of this ethnicity to give money, in turn affecting Muslim charities. In my opinion, the government should show true American ideals and not judge by race. They also should not forget that some people who have been guilty of terrorist activities were Causacian, of African descent, and of many other ethnic groups. The United States needs to broaden its horizons and not just look into organizations with Middle Eastern ties. In conclusion, racism is an unfortunate result of the Patriot Act, but there are additional reasons that the act is detrimental to the country.

One of the major reasons that the Patriot Act goes against many of the nation’s principles is that it can take away the rights of American citizens who are suspected of terrorism. For example, Section 501 of the act (as written on uslaboragainstwar.org )
is as follows: “Stripping even native-born Americans of all of the rights of United States citizenship if they provide support to unpopular organizations labeled as terrorist by our government, even if they support only the lawful activities of such organizations, allowing them to be indefinitely imprisoned in their own country as undocumented aliens.” In other words, if an American citizen supports a “terrorist” organization, but does not do or have a hand in anything criminal, then the individual can lose their lawful rights, including the right to counsel and the right to a trial. These individuals can be locked up for as long as the government wishes. In my opinion, as a United States citizen, a person deserves to have all of their rights when arrested. It does not matter whether they have engaged in terrorism, theft, rape or murder; in each case the detainee should receive fair treatment. The individual should not even be in US custody in the first place if the person did not help put a terrorist attack into action. In conclusion, the fact that citizens can be stripped of their rights can definitely change America’s view of the government, making it one of the notable pieces of the bill.

The Patriot Act has negatively changed our country and is a very controversial subject in society nowadays. It is so significant because it goes against many of America’s beliefs and morals. The government is trying to do a good thing by strengthening its policies, but the price of security is prejudice between races, the paranoia of losing citizenship, and a lack of privacy. It is the duty of Americans to protest this law and regain the rights given to them by the Founding Fathers. Even though the purpose of the Patriot Act is to protect Americans, so many rights are taken away that citizens feel even less protected, making this law a burden that the United States has to carry.

Answer 2

He was a jumping up and down screaming that it was wrong to invade someones privacy but of course the liberal will say he wasn't. Glenn Beck became politically aware after 9-11. I have seen him bash both sides of the political spectrum. He is a firm believer in the constitution. This is wear him and I disagree, I agree with listening on calls to nations wear terrorists hide or are supported, as long as, the law is repealed after the war is done. Lincoln did suspend Constitutional rights during the civil war it was also done during WW2 and it was deemed allowable during those time but not by President Bush after 9-11 but is ok for Obama that is the hypocrisy

Answer 3

I think that this act never would have passed if it wasn't for 9/11. In fact, the Republicans had been pushing it for years beforehand. As soon as 9/11 happened, they took advantage of the situation and of the fear in everyone's minds at the time to slip it through. It's big brother. We have no privacy anymore. We might not have had it before but now they don't even have to be covert about it. They want to listen to you, whether your Muslim or not, they can just because they want to. Anyone can be a suspected terrorist.

As for the person that said if you're not doing anything wrong, why worry... alright then. How about I put cameras in your house, in your bathroom, in your locker room and shower to make sure you're not doing anything bad. What do you have to worry about, as long as you're not doing anything wrong, RIGHT??? Since your privacy is obviously worth nothing to you, you shouldn't have a problem with it. Well sorry if I don't feel the same way you do! The fact is the majority of Americans value their privacy. If I want to have phone sex, I want to be able to do so without having to think that some fed at the NSA is listening to me at the same time under the auspices of national security!

I'd venture to say most people haven't read the patriot act. Want to know why? IT'S 342 FREAKIN' PAGES OF LEGALEZE! It was written to be hard to read and long on purpose. And that's not counting the additional 100 even more ridiculous provisions added by John "Let the Eagles Soar" Ashcroft in 2003!

As for 9/11 occurring because the Patriot Act wasn't passed beforehand? Nonsense! Unless the republicans decidedly sat on the information in order for a terrorist attack to occur to give them leverage on their issues such as the Patriot Act and taking over Iraq! Now there's an interesting theory for you! We already knew that with the existing security and intelligence in place that the government KNEW that Al Qaeda planned on using hijackers to fly planes into buildings. If they already knew about it, how would have the Patriot Act made a difference? They knew already and they didn't act upon it. That's THEIR fault, not that of the Patriot Act not in power at the time.

To the guy who agrees with racial profiling. What the hell would you have done if the person who did this was white? You didn't see people looking cross-eyed at white people when there was the Unabomber or Oklahoma City. You think it's all great rounding up people of a certain race until its your own or until you see all the innocent lives it affects, people just like you and me with families to take care of. Back in WWII they took all the people who looked Japanese in the US, even if they had been here for many generations and locked them up in a camp. Now they've got Arabs and Muslims locked up in Gitmo without any rights, without a trial, making up their own rules and a kangaroo court. What if China one day decided they were going to come here and abduct people and then take them to a camp just because they can?

Answer 4

I am for the patriot act. "Muslims and Middle Easterns come to be the target!" I see your concern but I don't see anything wrong with racial profiling in this case. We all know that there are a lot of arabics who are willing to kill innocent Americans (that's not to say that all Middle Easterners/Muslims are bad) so why wouldn't we be a little bit more suspcious of them.
This is nothing more than people using their eyes and memories to protect them from potential danger. It's very natural.

As far as the patriot act in general.... there's always a trade off. It's sad that we have to make a choice between protection and privacy, but that's the world we live in and it will only get worse. Our enemies are going to be after us until they win or are completely defeated. There are no negotiations here.

Answer 5

I think it is a step to police us more than we already are. I think in January things will change. And Democrats are probably in favor of the Patriot Act ending, next time around. No I don't like the idea and wouldn't it be more intelligent to stop people coming in the country? We have given and given to other countries. I is time for new laws and new ideas, because it doesn't seem to be working, other than having a giant eye in the sky.

Answer 6

it's all a matter of a social contract, the balance of freedom and security. people like having freedom and security equally, but many don't realize that it's not balanced right now. we all want freedom, but the price we pay for having the freedom (esp. from the govt), is the lack of security. imagine all those people who complain about really tight security, so when the govt/authority loosens their authority over the people, and an attack occurs, then it's the same damn people that complain about the govt not doing its job protecting the people. i don't like the thought of the govt invading your privacy, but if you have nothing to hide, then why react negatively? i would rather they listen to conversations (i mean, out of the millions of people, why would they zoom in on you if you're talking about...cell phones and other harmless things? they have better things to track), than not listening to conversations, only to let another 9/11 happen again. muslims and middle easterns are not necessarily the target, this is untrue, unlike what other people think. there are over 40 subgroups of Al Qaeda, all from different countries and cultures. and just to remind you, they don't target muslims, they target those with radical thinking, those people who are tied anti western beliefs.

Answer 7

did you read yesterday that the govt can also tap your cellphones and use them as a listening tool..... go to www.rense.com very interesting website - has a lot of very straight forward information regarding govt activites - there was one for a while on there about the Patriot Act.

The American People need to start standing up for their constitution...and demanding that our government get back to "basics" of what the country is about and what our first leaders had planned. it is well thought out and does work for all future.

Answer 8

I will give up a degree of privacy to help stop terrorist and criminal acts, it is unfortunate but seems to be neccessary sacrifice. Its kinda like cameras at red lights a DETERRENT. If you don't run the lite you have no problem.

Answer 9

Good luck. Most teachers/professors I know have never actually read the Patriot Act. They have pre-formed their opinions based on the "Bush Hate" dogma.

Answer 10

Think about it like this. If you don't have anything to hide, why worry? The law is there to find and track potential threats to the United States. I for one like the thought of preventing another terrorist attack where thousands of innocent Americans are killed for no good reason. If the potential terrorist is an American citizen, oh well!