With freedoms being restricted, is that a problem if you're not doing anything wrong?

Question

With new proposals for biological information in your passport, ID cards and government legislation allowing them to scan our emails and phone calls for example, a lot of our lives will become more monitored, and potentially recorded, than ever before.

Is this a problem if you are a good citizen?

For me, I don't care if I'm caught on camera 1,000 times a day or if my emails are read - I don't do anything illegal and don't intend to.

What are other people's opinions on the matter?

After-thought:

Is it really reducing your freedom? You can still do everything you were able to before, it just reduces your freedom to commit crime. Is that a bad thing?

Answer 1

Those that would give up their freedom or liberty for temporary security deserve neither.

Benjamin Franklin

Answer 2

Any information can be used or abused....for you or against you......depending on who's got control of it and for what reason. Doing something wrong has nothing to do with it.

It could be something as simple as having some physical problem. Lets say you were in a car accident and had an injury. They may decide it's too risky to hire you even though you're not experiencing any problems. Maybe you were late for work and just said it was traffic.....but they were tracking you and found out you slept in.

I mean right now a kid can get busted in school for having an asprin yet they let drug dealers crossing the border get off if it's less than 500 lbs.

I mean right now in an emotional moment someone might write.....I'd like to kill that dude.....not really meaning it, and be charged with a crime.

At the rate these yahoos are going they may have them scan your card to decided whether or not you should have a candy bar because your records show you have a family history of diabetes.

Give them an inch and they take a mile.

Answer 3

When freedoms are restricted, then they aren't freedoms anymore. What that does is take power away from the people, and give it to the government- and this is exactly what the framers of the Constitution sought to prevent when they formed the United States of America. If the governing body has too much power, then the people can't fix it when it becomes corrupted. It was more important to them that the people were protected from the government, then the government be protected from the people. The United States of America IS the people- not the governing body.

Answer 4

I agree partially.The problem is where does it stop? Once you erode the protections afforded by the Constitution you ruin what is America. The question is if youre innocent why worry. Considering over 100 innocent people have been released from death row in the last decade there seems to be alot to worry about. What is to stop those in power from using the new found power to silence those who disagree with them. We would essentially become a police state such as Rome right before its fall.

Answer 5

Yes, this is a problem for a good citizen and I consider this question naive but fundamentally important. This is a problem for hard-working, dedicated, law abiding citizens who have strong values and strong political beliefs.

We have examples of police states throughout the world that execute or otherwise "neutralize" political dissidents (right-wing or left-wing). In this country, some organizations make a concerted effort to professionally discredit or otherwise undermine the careers of artists, reporters, professors, and other professionals that do not agree with the "official story."

There are other ways to imprison people without using prisons.

Answer 6

it's not about if you are doing some thing wrong or right. It is about how much control the government has. If they can pry into our personal lives. if they can monitor us 24/7, then lets hope and cross our fingers we have a good government. But with all this monitoring in place, and the wrong people in charge. It can give more power to the government, and in the end, our freedom taken away.

Answer 7

Yes, it's a problem.

Who's to say that what you do in your home or your office or in your car won't be found by someone to be offensive and declared illegal sometime down the road?

Sorry, but the right of people to live as private citizens and to be secure in their persons and their property is implied in the Ninth Amendment and explicitly stated in the Fifth Amendment. If you're not prepared to defend your rights or those of your fellow citizens, then you have no one left to defend you when someone else decides that what you do should be monitored and/or banned.

Answer 8

Maybe if we lived in a world where there was a truly impartial arbiter who determined who was a good citizen or not your ideas might carry some weight. We don't. Our government gets to decide. If you don't see that as a problem then you're probably white and have never been a victim of police brutality.

Answer 9

Just the problem that things can be misinterpreted. The problem that law enforcement may decide you're guilty and then get circumstantial evidence to support that. Guilty until proven innocent-a dangerous path. Read about some cases involving circumstantial evidence where someone has later been found innocent. Now, imagine it's a case involving terrorism. Your rights fall apart there.

Answer 10

This is always the arguement of those who want to restrict freedom. Sure if you're not doing anything wrong there shouldn't be a problem, right? Wrong.
I want the right to privacy. I'm not doing anything wrong, but I would like to keep my privacy- well, private. It's my business, not yours and since I'm doing nothing wrong, not the government's.

Answer 11

I'm all for security,but to rip open my had bags in my car because we had a license plate light out is B.S.,I was asked is it OK if I look in your car.Looking is not ransacking your vehicle.These NAZI ******* are out of control,most all of them are little punks beat-up through childhood,became control freaks and now carry a badge and a gun and have card Blanche to blow you away now.

Sounds like B.S. Freedom to me,Makes me want to puke,Millions have died to give us what we had and to sit by and let some NAZI ****** take it away is B.S.

Ben Franklin said,He who gives up Freedom for Security,deserves neither.