The Patriot Act: Right or Wrong

The PATRIOT Act: Right or Wrong. On September 11th of 2001 the United States was attacked. Many people died and through that drama the United States was unified with a singular goal of stopping terrorism. While many people were willing to sacrifice a few freedoms for the greater good, others were asking where is the line between the government fighting terrorism and abusing a situation to expand its dominion over the public. The United States government passed a bill called the PATRIOT Act to simplify procedures, relax rule sets on prosecution and give the government more jurisdiction into the personal lives of the populace by allowing surveillance techniques like roving wire taps and data mining without provocation or court order. While many officials state that this act is a crucial tool in the war on terror, others argue that it is unconstitutional and taking away the freedoms the government is supposed to protect. This difference in opinion has raised the question of how much privacy should the population be willing to give up to support the war on terror. The PATRIOT Act is walking a dangerous line and it would be irresponsible to accept it without research into the pros and cons, which are not equal. Although the act does have a few benefits, it goes too far over that line by giving the far too much power to the government while taking away too many freedoms. There is no question that terrorism is bad and it is a good thing for people to see a government standing up against those that are willing to hurt the innocent. After the events of 9/11 it was generally accepted that one of the reasons the terrorists were so successful was because there was a blatant failure of communication. This failure of agencies communicating caused a gap in security which was capitalized on. What ensued was a level of chaos and destruction performed on civilians not seen in quite some time and one of the worst terrorist acts ever to befall the United States. The crisis

References: Banks, C. P. (2001). Public Integrity. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=660ab258-d462-4f06-9399-41fbb0c0a0dd%40sessionmgr4&vid=6&hid=24 Cole, D.(2011). The War on Civil Liberties. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=660ab258-d462-4f06-9399-41fbb0c0a0dd%40sessionmgr4&vid=6&hid=24 Graves, L. (2010). The Right to Privacy in Light of Presidents ' Programs. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=12&hid=24&sid=660ab258-d462-4f06-9399-41fbb0c0a0dd%40sessionmgr4 Ridge, T. (2004). Using the Patriot Act to Fight Terrorism. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=17&hid=24&sid=660ab258-d462-4f06-9399-41fbb0c0a0dd%40sessionmgr4